Background

Halfdan Rasmussen was born on January 29, 1915 in Copenhagen, Denmark.

Education

Halfdan Rasmussen attended an international school in Elsingor.

Career

Halfdan Rasmussen's first book, Soldat eller menneske, was published in 1941. After the war, the poet began to pay more attention to works for children. Written in the genre of literary nonsense, these verses amazed readers with sparkling humor and a sophisticated pun. Children's books, created by Rasmussen in collaboration with illustrator Ib Spang-Olsen, have long become classics of world literature.

Achievements

• Halfdan Rasmussen was one of the most popular and respected Danish poets in the world and a winner of many prestigious awards. Rasmussen's work is as popular among adults as it is among children. He wrote one novel and thirty-one volumes of poetry - fifteen of these written for children. Halfdans ABC, published in 1967, is included in the Danish Cultural Canon - a list of one hundred and eight works of art officially recognized as an integral part of Danish cultural property and of great importance to Danish culture. His Tosserier was reprinted seven times. His poems have been set to music and recorded. They can be heard on television programs and on the radio.

Works

More photos

• book

  • A Little Bitty Man
  • The Ladder
  • Hocus Pocus 1969
  • Tosserier 1960
  • Halfdans Sange

Politics

At an early age Rasmussen was a member of the anarcho-syndicalist movement. Later, he contributed to the syndicalist weekly Arbejdet ("Work"). Halfdan also helped edit and publish the memoirs of revolutionary syndicalist Christian Christensen and took active part in the Danish anti-nuclear movement, the campaigns against EU membership, and in Amnesty International.

Connections

Halfdan Rasmussen was married to the writer Ester Nagel, with whom he had two children, actor Iben Nagel Rasmussen and musician Tom Nagel Rasmussen. Later, he married the first wife of his good friend Benny Andersen, Signe Plesner.

Spouse:

Signe Plesner

child:

Iben Nagel Rasmussen

child:

Tom Nagel Rasmussen

ex-spouse:

Ester Nagel