Janson

in Holland, evidently in charge of his original
business of lace-making. He was not without
funds, for he made at least two purchases of land
in or near Philadelphia. His death occurred in
Philadelphia and he was buried in the Friends'
Burial Ground.

Jansen's Christian name was spelled in vari-
ous ways, appearing in his imprint as Reinier,
in his will as Rener, and in other places as Rey-
nier and Reyner.

[Nathan Kite's anonymous "Antiquarian Researches
Among the Early Printers and Publishers of Friends'
Books," in The Friend (Phila.), Tenth Month 21, 1843 ;
S. W. Pennypacker, "The Settlement of Germantown,"
and J. W. Wallace, "Early Printing in Philadelphia,"
in Pa. Mag. of Hist, and Biog., vol. IV (1880), nps.
i, 4; Isaiah Thomas, The Hist, of Printing in America
(1874), I, 223, 225; and the minutes of the Phila.
Monthly Meeting of Friends.] j. j.

JANSON, KRISTOFER NAGEL (May 5,
i84i-Nov. 17, 1917), poet, novelist, Unitarian
clergyman, was born of an old commercial family
in Bergen, Norway, his parents being Consul
Helmich Janson and Constanse Fredrikke Jan-
son (nee Neumann). In manhood he never used
his middle name. He received his early school-
ing in the Cathedral School, Bergen, whence he
was admitted to the University, Christiania
(Oslo), in 1859, matriculating in the theological
department. He did not finish his training for
the Lutheran ministry, however, because he had
come to hold certain liberal views that were dis-
approved by the church. During the next four-
teen years he devoted himself exclusively to
writing. Though his literary taste and method
had been largely determined by Danish and Nor-
wegian Romanticists, the then new language
movement (landsmaal) in Norway had a power-
ful appeal for him, and until 1881 he wrote
mostly in this literary form. His Fraa Bygdom
(1866) contains the masterly story "Liv," per-
haps his chief contribution to Norwegian fiction.
A volume of poems, Norske Dikt, also in the
landsmaal, was printed in 1867. In 1869 he
became a teacher in Chr. Bruun's public high
school in North Sel, Gudbrandsdalen. A few
years later this school was moved to Gausdal,
Janson remaining with it until 1878, when he
was forced to resign because he had gone over
to Unitarianism. The experiences that led to
this step are portrayed in the story Ensom
("Alone"), published in 1903, which is largely
autobiographical. In 1879 Janson went to Amer-
ica and remained some time at Harvard, read-
ing Channing and Parker, then went to Minne-
sota, where in 1879-80 he delivered some eighty
lectures in the Norwegian settlements under the
auspices of the Unitarian Church. In the sum-
1880 he returned to Norway, but was in-

Janson

vited by the American Unitarian Association to
establish a mission in Minnesota, and in 1881
began preaching in Minneapolis, where he or-
ganized the Nazareth Unitarian Society. He
also organized societies in St. Paul, Hanska, and
Underwood, Minn., and Hudson, Wis. His mis-
sionary work continued until 1893, when he re-
turned to Norway. He lived thereafter at Chris-
tiania and in Copenhagen until his death.

During his American years he traveled and
lectured extensively, published a volume of ser-
mons, edited the Unitarian organ Saamanden,
carried on investigation about Norwegian im-
migration and settlements, and wrote many books
based on the materials gathered, including:
Amerikanske Forholde (1881) ; Prairiens Saga
(1885); Nordmaend i Amerika (1887). He
wrote novels, translated titles of which are:
From the Danish Period (1876); Our Grand-
parents (1881); Sara (1891); The Spellbound
Fiddler (English edition, 1892); The Outlaw
(1893); Aspasia (1914); a drama, Asgeir
Kongsson (1902); and a second volume of
poems, Digte (1911). A popularization of
Norse mythology, Ved Mimes Brpnd (1917),
appeared about the time of his death. His own
life he has described in Hvad Jeg har Oplevet,
issued in 1913. Our Grandparents is based on
the events that preceded the union of Norway
and Sweden in 1814, and as an interpretation of
that troubled era is a work of major importance.
About 1866 Janson was married to Drude Krog,
the daughter of a clergyman near Bergen, Nor-
way; they separated in 1893. In 1895 he founded
a Unitarian Society in Christiania, and he re-
mained its pastor to the year of his death, con-
tinuing also to write and to lecture. He was a
man of great learning. His knowledge of the
eighteenth century, the French Revolution, and
the Napoleonic era was that of a specialist.
Though deeply religious and a man of great
earnestness of purpose, he was often unjust in
his attacks upon the church from which he
had withdrawn. Most of his stories written
after 1878 contain, in conversations and char-
acterizations, propaganda against the Lutheran
Church.

[Idar Handagard, in Syn og Segn (1925); Ung-
Norig. Tidskrift (Risor, Norway, 1923) ; Anton Aure,
Prestar som talar nynorsk (Risor, 1924) ; letters from
R. B. Anderson and Carl G. O. Hansen and other tin-
printed matter; Anton Aure, Nynorsk Boklista (1916);
P. Botten-Hansen, Norske Student er der har Absolveret
Examen Artium ved Christiania Universitet (1893-95);
0. N. Nelson, Hist, of the Scandinavians . . . in the
U. S. (1893), vol. I; p. M. Norlie, Hist, of the Nor-
wegian People in America (1925); Aftenposten (Chris-
tiania), Nov. 18, 1917; Politiken (Copenhagen), Nov.
18, 1917; J. B. Wist, Norsk-Amerikanernes Festskrift,
1914 (i9i4)0 G.T.F.

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