Background
Sverdrup was born in Gravdal, Buksnes, Lofoten, as a son of medical doctor Harald Ulrik Sverdrup (1890–1976) and Berit Johanne Strandenæs (1896–1961).
Sverdrup was born in Gravdal, Buksnes, Lofoten, as a son of medical doctor Harald Ulrik Sverdrup (1890–1976) and Berit Johanne Strandenæs (1896–1961).
Other first cousins once removed are Leif Sverdrup, Georg Johan Sverdrup and philologist Jakob Sverdrup. He was also a great-grandson of Harald Ulrik Sverdrup, Senior, a grandnephew of Jakob Sverdrup, Georg Sverdrup and Edvard Sverdrup, and a second cousin of historian Jakob Sverdrup. He spent his early childhood in Lofoten, Risør, Hvitsten and Rjukan, and later in Oslo.
During World World War II he participated in resistance work in Norway, until he fled to Sweden and Great Britain in 1944.
He joined as ground crew at the Norwegian Spitfire Wing, and participated at the war front in Belgium, Holland and Germany. The couple lived at Kalbakken and Stokke.
Sverdrup made his literary debut in 1948 with the poetry collection Drøm og drift. He issued the collection of children"s poetry Snurrebassen og andre tøysevers in 1958.
He received the Mads Wiel Nygaards Endowment in 1959.
During the 1960s he issued the poetry collections Isbjørnfantasi (1961), Sang til solen (1964) and Farlig vind (1969), and the prose books Negeren og solsikken (1965) and Paradisets barn (1968). In the 1970s he issued the poetry collections Fredløse ord (1971) and Grønn kalender (1974).
He received several literary prizes, including the Norwegian Critics Prize for Literature, the Mads Wiel Nygaards Endowment, the Dobloug Prize and the Riksmål Society Literature Prize. His literary breakthrough came with the collection Sankt Elms ild from 1958, which earned him the Norwegian Critics Prize for Literature. He received the Dobloug Prize in 1978, and the Riksmål Society Literature Prize in 1985.
