Per Egil Hegge

Per Egil Hegge (born 6 March 1940) is a Norwegian journalist.

Per Egil Hegge
Born	Per Egil Hegge (1940-03-06) 6 March 1940 Trondheim, Norway
Nationality	Norwegian
Occupation	Journalist

Hegge was born in Trondheim[1] as a son of two teachers from Skatval. The family moved to Inderøy in 1941.[2]

He served his military service at the elite Russian language program of the Norwegian Armed Forces. He started his career in the Norwegian News Agency, and was hired in Aftenposten in 1962 and remained there for the rest of his career. He was the newspaper's London correspondent from 1963 to 1965, and then worked in Norway (winning the Narvesen Prize in 1968) before becoming Moscow correspondent from 1969 to 1971. He was then expelled from the country, one of the reasons for this being that he was the first journalist to interview Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn after he won the Nobel Prize in Literature in 1970. After another six years in Norway from 1971 to 1977 Hegge was the Washington DC correspondent from 1977 to 1981. He was then subeditor before editing Aftenposten's magazine A-magasinet from 1984 to 1988. From 1992 to 1998 he was the cultural editor. He retired in 2005,[3][4] but continued to have a column about the correct use of language. When it comes to perceptions of the Norwegian language quality development, Hegge has been called a "housegod of the dissatisfied" by literary critic Aage Borchgrevink.[5]

Hegge chaired the Norwegian branch of PEN-International from 1985 to 1988. He has written several books, formerly about world affairs,[3][4] lately many books about the correct use of language and other popular releases. He has also biographed Otto Sverdrup (in 1996), Fridtjof Nansen (in 2002) and Harald V of Norway (in 2006). His Nansen biography was translated to Armenian in 2007.[6] Hegge has also been a popular lecturer.[7]

In 2003 he was decorated with the Royal Norwegian Order of St. Olav (Knight 1st Class).[7]

References

1. "Nord ikke sør!". Aftenposten (in Norwegian). 30 September 1985.
2. Seniorforum med Per Egil Hegge Archived 2012-05-06 at the Wayback Machine Stjørdalsnytt, 30 April, 2012
3. Bonde, Arne. "Per Egil Hegge". In Helle, Knut (ed.). Norsk biografisk leksikon (in Norwegian). Oslo: Kunnskapsforlaget. Retrieved 22 May 2010.
4. Henriksen, Petter, ed. (2007). "Per Egil Hegge". Store norske leksikon (in Norwegian). Oslo: Kunnskapsforlaget. Retrieved 22 May 2010.
5. Borchgrevink, Aage (13 December 2009). "Gjensyn med Babels tårn". Aftenposten (in Norwegian).
6. List of publications in BIBSYS
7. "Per Egil Hegge ble ridder av St. Olavs Orden". Stavanger Aftenblad (in Norwegian). 17 October 2003. p. 32.

Awards
Preceded by Richard Herrmann	Recipient of the Narvesen Prize 1968 (shared with Arve Solstad)	Succeeded by Kai Otto Hansen