Martha Ostenso

Martha Ostenso (September 17, 1900-November 24, 1963) emigrated from Norway with her parents in 1902. They lived in Clear Lake, South Dakota and several Minnesotan towns before moving to Winnipeg, Canada. She attended the University of Manitoba and Columbia University but never graduated. She spent time in New York before returning to Minnesota. She lived in Minneapolis and Gull Lake for a time and she and her husband also lived in Hollywood for a time, becoming friends with the actors and actresses of the 1930s and ‘40s. In 1963, Ostenso moved to Seattle with her husband, which is where she died.

Ostenso wrote twenty-five novels, many based on farm life in Minnesota and Canada. Her first novel, Wild Geese, received a $13,500 cash prize in 1926 for best novel of the year from Dodd, Mead, and Co. The story follows a schoolteacher who is sent to Manitoba to teach. Wild Geese has been adapted into three movies, the first in 1927, the second in 1961 under the title The Cry of the Wild Geese, and the third in 2001 as a made-for-TV movie under the title After the Harvest. None of Ostenso’s other words were as popular as Wild Geese. Other works include O, River Remember!, The Dark Dawn, and And They Shall Walk: The Life Story of Sister Elizabeth Kenny.

More information on Martha Ostenso from the Minnesota Historical Society.