Guttormur J. Guttormsson, a Canadian who wrote in Icelandic, was born in Canada and only saw Iceland for the first time when he was about sixty years old. Although in the Canadian environment, he wrote poetry and drama only in Icelandic, perpetuating a tradition among Icelanders in North America that disappeared by the late twentieth century. His poetry expressed primarily the settler's experience, not that of the immigrant.

Guttormur Jónsson Guttormsson was born on 21 November 1878 on the farmstead Vidivellir at Icelandic River in New Iceland, now Riverton, Manitoba. He was the son of Jón Guttormsson, from Arnheidarstadir in eastern Iceland (Guttormur's grandfather Guttormur was a member of the Alþingi, or Parliament), and Pálína Ketilsdóttir, from Bakkagerdi in Borgarfjördur, eastern Iceland. She was considered intelligent and wrote poetry.

Guttormur's parents were poor, however, and were...