Following is a part of the speech delivered by Jean Parker Holm, well-known Norwegian-American writer, in honor of Johan Bojer:

"I, too, want to express not only my appreciation, but the appreciation of all the Norwegians here in Chicago of Johan Bojer and his writings, and I shall be happy if, in expressing myself, I can convey some of the great wave of respect and appreciation that has extended far beyond the confines of Scandinavian peoples. In my association with the Press Club and the Pen and Brush Club, and in more infinite contact with men of letters wherever people have gathered in the name of literature, I have found Johan Bojer to be the man of the hour. So profound an impression is seldom made by an author during his lifetime. I shall speak, therefore--without regard for where we are or under whose auspices we are--directly upon his work, and directly to Mr. Bojer.

"Five years ago, having been an omnivorous reader, I came abruptly to the decision that I should give no more time to wasteful reading. The decision has eliminated most fiction. In these five years three novels alone have claimed my attention: first, the English novel, The Cloister and the Hearth, which is a study coming into cosmic consciousness, unexcelled in height and depth; second, Hamsun's Dreamers, noted for its exquisite fragile style which is in reality a superb rendering of behavioristic psychology (outdoing D'Annuncio who, until now, was accredited the master thereof); third, The Last of the Vikings by Johan Bojer. As the first is a study of the soul, the next a sketch of rough, yet subtle psychology, revealed by deft, unerring surface strokes, the last is an exhaustive study, a glorious revelation of the heart. I have been asked, when speaking thus of the book to those who have not read it, 'Is it, then, a love story?' The answer can only be an emphatic 'yes'. For when he has finished the book, the reader is more filled with love for the characters than he can comfortably endure.

"While there is much world-challenging art in Norway and among our Norwegian-American 3writers here, in literature, music, and sculpture chiefly, here speaks a new tongue. If a Dickens could come to England and so write as to convey his own great love for all of his characters; and not only that, but to awaken in his world-wide readers the same great love, such a thing can happen again, and has now happened in Norway; and this is, I believe, the secret of the great contemporary recognition that Bojer's work has aroused.

"That this should happen in Norway is perhaps a surprise to the Norwegians themselves, for any conscious analysis of the impulse of tenderness for one's fellow man is less usual there than among the Latin races, but there is no place where more radiant love is unconsciously expressed than in Norway. Now, at last, this is immortalized for all the world to share, and this in the most difficult, the most cumbersome, most easily misunderstood medium in usage--words.

"I would like to speak briefly of the consummate style by which the artist causes you to share his own feelings, whether one accepts the Latin concept of poetry as a form identical with the spirit of the meaning, or our more metaphysical American idea that 'poetry is thought, packed tight for a long journey,' or Tolstoy's insistence upon the imagination that the greatest poetry is that which gives you the widest range of impressions in the shortest compass. I declare the touching chapter devoted to each fisherman's privacy while gazing into his "home chest", to be in its purity and exhaltation, poetry of the grand style. Given the impressions that lead up to this climax, the climax itself fills and distends one's consciousness. One must feel and experience a sense of expansion in order to contain such a wealth and variety of united motifs as in the crescendo of a rich and overwhelming fugue.

And again in the simplicity and naturalness of sequence, by which each 5nature gets its chance to break through to declare itself in heroic nobility, this artist stands unparalleled.

It is recorded of Wergeland that at his moment of transition from what was for him a field of arduous labor, a great vision broke upon him, and he saw as by special revelation the all-transferring love of his compatriots, and declared in ecstatic gratitude, 'I am borne to heaven on a cloud of the love of the people'. May I add that for anyone who here in this life can recognize the love of his fellow men, it is unnecessary to wait for this moment of transition, or to leave his chosen field of activity, for he is already in heaven. His immortality knows no postponement.

For Mr. Bojer, I would wish the deepest satisfaction in the great tide of appreciation that has risen in his contemporaries, and an ever-increasing inspiration for the work in which he so excels--the uncovering of the sublime in human nature."

The Norwegian-American writers, artists, and journalists who attended this festival in honor of Bojer, all seemed to feel that he would have a great influence on them and on their work in the future.