The Mountains Wait by Theodor Broch

Life under the Nazis in a northern Norwegian town

This book came to my attention because it features pictures by Rockwell Kent, one of America’s great book illustrators. Finding the subject matter interesting, I decided to read it, and I’m glad I did. The Mountains Wait was written by Theodor Broch, a Norwegian lawyer and politician. In this memoir, published in 1942, Broch recounts Norway’s involuntary entry into World War II when the Nordic nation was invaded by the Nazis.

The book opens with Broch fleeing through the mountains trying to escape into neutral Sweden. He then flashes back ten years to when he first moved to the small, far northern city of Narvik a decade earlier. Narvik is a seaport town from which the iron ore of Swedish mines is shipped out to the world. Broch, raised and educated in Oslo, moved to Narvik following graduation from law school because his father, a military man, was stationed there. In the first few chapters of the book, Broch relates how he began practicing law, became a city councilman, and was then elected mayor of Narvik. As he gets to know the inhabitants of the remote community, the reader gets a glimpse into the peaceful and picturesque life of this small Norwegian town.

That all changes on April 9, 1940, when the Nazis invade Norway. Narvik is taken and occupied for its crucial seaport. The British launch a savage naval battle in the adjacent fjord, but it fails to win the town’s freedom. Soldiers from Norway, Britain, Poland, and even the French Foreign Legion are all engaged in combat in and around Narvik. As mayor of the town, Broch is required to meet with the Nazi commanding officers and cater to their demands. He provides a realistic glimpse at life under Nazi occupation. At times relations are reluctantly cordial between the Norwegians and their captors, but the residents of Narvik still covertly resist the Nazis at the risk of punishment by death. Because the Nazis claim the Nordics as their racial brethren, the overt atrocities of ethnic cleansing are not an issue, but the Nazis certainly do not behave themselves as gentleman combatants when they engage in all kinds of dirty tricks from donning Norwegian uniforms, hiding behind the red cross symbol, or using civilians as human shields. As time goes on and their hold on the town becomes less secure, the Nazis become more violent and abusive towards the Norwegians. Many citizens of Narvik are killed by bombing raids, and some by friendly fire, as their town is destroyed around them.

The title of the book refers to the fact that while Broch and many of his countrymen have fled to live in exile, he hopes that one day the Nazis will be driven from Norway, and his native land will once again welcome its children back to its beautiful snow-covered landscapes. A word that is used often in the text is “quisling,” denoting a traitor who collaborates with the enemy. This common noun was derived from the proper name of Vidkun Quisling, head of the Norwegian government under Nazi occupation, who briefly makes an appearance early in the book.

Kent’s illustrations for the book are excellent. He provides headpieces and tailpieces for each chapter. These are mostly lovely scenic views of the Narvik region. Only a few of the illustrations specifically depict views of war. Regardless of the art, however, readers with any connection to Norway or an interest in the second world war in Europe will find Broch’s historical memoir a compelling read.
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Illustrations by Rockwell Kent, from the book

It’s Me O Lord by Rockwell Kent

Autobiography of an artist, activist, atheist, socialist, and egotist

From the 1920s through the 1950s, Rockwell Kent was one of America’s best known artists. He is remembered for his landscape paintings and book illustrations, most notably the 1930 edition of Moby-Dick, and his artwork was also commonly seen in magazines and ad campaigns of his era. Over the course of his career, Kent wrote and illustrated several memoirs focusing on specific journeys or periods of his life. In 1955, however, he published a complete autobiography of his life up to that point, entitled It’s Me O Lord. In addition to being an artist, Kent was also a known socialist, atheist, and vegetarian, before any of those -isms were tolerated by mainstream America. The book is about these other aspects of his life just as much, if not more, than his career as an artist.

Kent was born to a rather privileged background, but he chose to live an austere and somewhat nomadic life in keeping with his socialist and artistic ethic. After recalling his education under painters like William Merritt Chase, Robert Henri, and Abbott Thayer, much of the book recounts Kent’s constant relocations from one locale to another. In almost every chapter he moves to a new state or country, builds a house, and paints pictures of the local landscape. Some of these travels he covered in books like Wilderness (about his time in Alaska), Voyaging Southwards from the Strait of Magellan (a journey to Tierra del Fuego), N by E, and Salamina (both about Greenland). Those interested in art might be disappointed to find that Kent talks more about building houses than he does about painting. As a socialist, he wants to depict himself not as an intellectual or aesthete but rather as a working man who is not afraid to get his hands dirty. At times Kent describes his family life as bordering on poverty, but it seems he always has wealthy friends to help him out when he’s in need, and ultimately his prodigious artistic talent leads to success. It’s Me O Lord contains hundreds of black and white illustrations from throughout Kent’s career as well as some color reproductions of his paintings.

As an artist Kent was a staunch realist, but as a writer he’s prone to romantic rhapsodizing. The convoluted Yoda-like syntax of each sentence needs to be unraveled before understanding. He also indulges in a lot of pretentious meta-commentary: “When writing an autobiography, one must . . .” Just write the book; don’t write about writing it; fifty pages of that could have been cut. And the ego on this guy! I don’t know if I’ve ever read an autobiography in which the author was so full of himself. Kent considers himself the greatest artist who ever lived, the truest socialist, and the best fighter, lover, and father. He never admits to doing anything wrong, and everyone else is always an idiot. At times his conceit comes across as childishly comic. The first time Kent confesses to cheating on his wife, the reader thinks, “My, how big of him to admit that!” By the third or fourth affair, however, one realizes that he is simply bragging about his conquests.

For a great artist who lived such an exciting life, It’s Me O Lord is a surprisingly dull narrative for much of its 617-page length. The final quarter of the book, however, delivers a significant escalation in interest. It is during these final chapters that Kent really delves into his activism as a socialist and the persecution he suffered for his beliefs during the era of McCarthyism. As the autobiography of an artist, It’s Me O Lord is really nothing to get excited about. As the autobiography of a socialist and freethinker, however, this is a valuable read for the perspective that Kent provides on the political climate of his times.
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Rockwell Kent illustration from Moby-Dick

Distant Shores: The Odyssey of Rockwell Kent by Constance Martin

A nutshell biography with emphasis on his paintings

In the early twentieth century, Rockwell Kent was the premier book illustrator in American publishing. It may have been his illustrations for the 1930 edition of Moby Dick that made him a household name, but Kent’s art adorned numerous literary and commercial publications. He was also a fine artist whose paintings have been exhibited in galleries and museums worldwide. Hand in hand with his artistic pursuits, Kent lived a life of adventure. He traveled to remote and exotic lands, drew and painted the landscapes and people he encountered there, and published books detailing his life in far-off places, often harsh wildernesses in cold and arctic climes. The book Distant Shores: The Odyssey of Rockwell Kent, published in 2000, details Kent’s life as a traveler and examines the paintings he created of his journeys to Maine, Newfoundland, Alaska, Tierra del Fuego, and Greenland.

Distant Shores was published as a catalog for an exhibition of Kent’s work organized by the Norman Rockwell Museum in Stockbridge, Massachusetts. The bulk of the book consists of full-page color reproductions of Kent’s paintings. The text is written by Constance Martin, art historian at the University of Calgary, and Richard V. West, director of the Frye Art Museum in Seattle (Those were there positions at the time of publication.) Martin discusses Kent’s travels and the paintings depicted in the book, while West covers Kent’s later career and his controversial political views. Kent was an outspoken socialist during the McCarthy era, which hurt his career in the United States, though he was a big hit in the Soviet Union, to which he donated a large collection of his artworks. Kent really led a fascinating life, but the main attraction of this coffee table book is its images, so the reader only gets the briefest outline of a Kent biography. Nevertheless, it is enough to captivate the reader’s interest for the course of the book’s two essays.

Though an accomplished painter, Kent is best known for his illustrations, usually in the form of pen and ink drawings or wood engravings. Personally, I am not enamored with Kent’s paintings, at least not the period of his career depicted here. His style is a cross between the Northeastern American style of Winslow Homer and the Wyeth family and the Canadian school of impressionists known as the Group of Seven, most notably Lawren Harris and Franklin Carmichael. I prefer the works of all of the aforementioned artists over the works of Kent exhibited in this volume. Kent had a great sense of color, as demonstrated by these works, but his brushwork is clumsy and his compositions often overly simplistic. The fact that his illustrations are so fastidious and precise makes it all the more difficult to understand why his paintings are often so loose and murky. For those who prefer Kent’s more illustrative style, the book does include at least a couple dozen of his black and white paintings and engravings, including several from Moby Dick.

I enjoyed Distant Shores more for the book’s biographical content than for the paintings included in the exhibition. While it only provides a bare bones biography of Kent, Distant Shores is very successful in piquing the reader’s curiosity about his fascinating life. After reading this book, I have an overwhelming desire to read Kent’s autobiography It’s Me, O Lord and get the details of his adventurous life straight from the horse’s mouth.
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Moby Dick, Chapter II (Harbor), 1930

Conception Bay, Newfoundland, 1915

Artist in Greenland, c. 1935/1960

Wilderness: A Journal of Quiet Adventure in Alaska by Rockwell Kent

Bad weather and father-son bonding
In the early 20th century, Rockwell Kent was a household name in book illustration, most notable for his work on the 1930 Lakeside Press edition of Moby-Dick. He also wrote and illustrated his own books, mostly relating his personal artistic adventures in remote locations in the Far North. His book Wilderness: A Journey of Quiet Adventure in Alaska, published in 1920, is Kent’s account of one such journey to Fox Island in Resurrection Bay, near what is now Kenai Fjords National Park. Kent and his son, also named Rockwell, traveled to Alaska in the Summer of 1918 for the express purpose of finding a cabin somewhere in which they could temporarily live like hermits in the wilderness. In Resurrection Bay they meet an elderly man named Olson who tells them he has a cabin out on Fox Island that they can rent. After purchasing and packing their supplies for a long stay, the two Rockwell Kents settle in to be Olson’s sole neighbors on the otherwise uninhabited isle. The book details their stay from August 1918 to March 1919.

Though I admire Kent for the journey he undertook, as far as life-in-the-wilderness memoirs go, this one is a bit disappointing. It contains little naturalistic observation of wildlife and not even much scenic description. Moments of philosophical reflection are likewise few and far between. So what does Kent write about? Mostly the weather, and it’s almost always bad. Relentless rain, fog, and snowfall are the norm, often keeping the father and son indoors. Kent also writes a lot about cutting down trees, chopping wood, and other household chores. He also makes frequent trips to the city of Seward that also detract from the wilderness narrative.

Though Kent is an artist, he doesn’t write much about painting either. He frequently mentions that he’s painting or drawing, but never gives much indication of his artistic process or even his subject matter. In fact, he probably writes more about stretching canvases than about actual painting. He does occasionally surprise the reader, however, by going off into a mini-essay on art in general, written with keen insight and profound eloquence. Another subject Kent covers well is his relationship with his son and the effect their sojourn in the Alaskan wilds is having on the boy’s own independent spirit. Though at times the trip sounds miserably cold and dreary, the warmth that develops between the bonding father and son is infectious and enviable. In addition, the Kents’ narrative benefits from frequent visits by Olson, who turns out to be not just a goofy hermit but also a former adventurer, an entertaining conversationalist, and a lovable codger.

The book includes dozens of illustrations by Kent. About half are realistic drawings of Alaskan scenery, and the rest are more idealized, allegorical pictures inspired by the trip, with figures in dramatic poses against abstracted backgrounds. The former category are more successful, at times evoking his famous illustrations for Moby-Dick. The digitized versions of the book online don’t really do justice to Kent’s art, so if the illustrations are of importance to you you’ll have to get your hands on a printed copy to get their full effect.

Despite the surprising paucity of both nature and art in this painters’ wilderness memoir, it does make for an enjoyable read. Whether you are an artist, a lover of solitude, or just someone who’s ever dreamed of making an extended trip to Alaska, it is fun to live vicariously through the Kents at their hermits’ fantasy camp, even if the weather sucks.

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