Martha Ostenso (17 September 1900 - 24 November 1963) was a Canadian novelist and screenwriter. Ostenso was born in Haukeland, Norway, but emigrated with her family to North America in 1902. They first settled in South Dakota before relocating to Manitoba. Ostenso was educated at the University of Manitoba. She is probably best known for the award-winning novel Wild Geese, published in 1925 (and filmed as After the Harvest in 2001). Ostenso eventually moved to the United States, where she continued to publish novels and wrote a number of screenplays. Although it is now known that Ostenso collaborated with her husband, fellow novelist Douglas Durkin, all her writing appeared under her name alone. Asked how to say her name, she told The Literary Digest, "Of the three syllables in Ostenso, the first receives the major accent, the second is without accent, the third receives a minor accent. The final result is as if you spoke the name Austin and added so as an afterthought... Since I was born in Norway, I suppose I should insist on the Norwegian values. But I don't. I am even weary of correcting people who insist that it is Ostenso. However, the Norwegians say Östensö... The accent is the same, so perhaps I am not too pedantic in maintaining that accent, since I have to sacrifice the vowel character." (Charles Earle Funk, What's the Name, Please?, Funk & Wagnalls, 1936.) Ostenso died in Seattle, Washington.
Bibliography
- In a Far Land (1924)
- Wild Geese (1925)
- The Dark Dawn (1926)
- The Mad Carews (1927)
- The Young May Moon (1929)
- The Waters under the Earth (1930)
- Prologue to Love (1931)
- There's Always Another Year (1933)
- The White Reef (1934)
- The Stone Field (1937)
- The Mandrake Root (1938)
- Love Passed This Way (1942)
- And They Shall Walk (1943, with Sister Elizabeth Kenny)
- O River, Remember! (1943)
- Milk Route (1948)
- The Sunset Tree (1949)
- A Man Had Tall Sons (1958)
References
Encyclopedia of Literature in Canada. Edited by W. H. New. Toronto: University of Toronto Press. p.854-55. ISBN 0-8020-0761-9
