Johan Anthon Abraham Fjeldsted Dahl (1 January 1807 – 16 March 1877) was a Norwegian bookseller and publisher, born in Copenhagen

Copenhagen

Copenhagen is the capital and largest city of Denmark, with an urban population of 1,199,224 and a metropolitan population of 1,930,260 . With the completion of the transnational Øresund Bridge in 2000, Copenhagen has become the centre of the increasingly integrating Øresund Region...

.

Personal life

Dahl was born in Copenhagen

Copenhagen

Copenhagen is the capital and largest city of Denmark, with an urban population of 1,199,224 and a metropolitan population of 1,930,260 . With the completion of the transnational Øresund Bridge in 2000, Copenhagen has become the centre of the increasingly integrating Øresund Region...

 as the son of shoemaker John Dahl and Anne Kirstine Willumsen. He was married to singer and music teacher Emma Amalie Charlotte Freyse (1819–1896).

Career

Dahl started working for Gyldendalske Boghandel in Copenhagen from he was 15 years old. In 1829 he moved to Christiania

Oslo

Oslo is a municipality, as well as the capital and most populous city in Norway. As a municipality , it was established on 1 January 1838. Founded around 1048 by King Harald III of Norway, the city was largely destroyed by fire in 1624. The city was moved under the reign of Denmark–Norway's King...

 in Norway to help with Jørgen Wright Cappelen

Jørgen Wright Cappelen

-Personal life:Jørgen Wright Cappelen was born in Porsgrund in 1805 as the ninth and last child of ship-owner Ulrich Fredrich von Cappelen and his wife Benedicte Henrikke, née Aall . His maternal grandfather was Nicolai Benjamin Aall, and as such his group of uncles included Constitutional...

's new bookstore. In 1832 he established his own bookstore in Christiania, which came to be an important meeting place for the literary and cultural elite in the 1830s and 1840s. He also established a publishing house. Among his published books were Amtmandens Døttre by Camilla Collett

Camilla Collett

Jacobine Camilla Collett was a Norwegian writer, often referred to as the first Norwegian feminist. She was also the younger sister of Norwegian poet Henrik Wergeland, and is recognized as being one of the first contributors to realism in Norwegian literature...

, Synnøve Solbakken by Bjørnstjerne Bjørnson

Bjørnstjerne Bjørnson

Bjørnstjerne Martinius Bjørnson was a Norwegian writer and the 1903 Nobel Prize in Literature laureate. Bjørnson is considered as one of The Four Greats Norwegian writers; the others being Henrik Ibsen, Jonas Lie, and Alexander Kielland...

, and Kongs-Emnerne

The Pretenders (play)

The Pretenders is a dramatic play by Norwegian playwright Henrik Ibsen.-Play overview:The Pretenders was written in bursts during 1863, but Ibsen claims to have had sources and the idea back in 1858. A five-act play in prose set in the thirteenth-century. The play opened at the old Christiania...

by Henrik Ibsen

Henrik Ibsen

Henrik Ibsen was a major 19th-century Norwegian playwright, theatre director, and poet. He is often referred to as "the father of prose drama" and is one of the founders of Modernism in the theatre...

.
A controversy occurred in 1836, when Dahl published Andreas Munch

Andreas Munch

Andreas Munch was a Norwegian poet, novelist, playwright and newspaper editor. He was the first person to be granted a poet's pension by the Parliament of Norway.-Personal life:...

's poetry collection Ephemerer. The police demanded that the book should be censored before its publication, while Dahl, in opposition to censorship

Censorship

thumb|[[Book burning]] following the [[1973 Chilean coup d'état|1973 coup]] that installed the [[Military government of Chile |Pinochet regime]] in Chile...

, refused. The case eventually ended in a victory for Dahl in the Supreme Court

Supreme Court of Norway

The Supreme Court of Norway was established in 1815 on the basis of the Constitution of Norway's §88, prescribing an independent judiciary. It is located in Oslo and is Norway's highest court...

.
Dahl founded the newspaper Den Constitutionelle

Den Constitutionelle

Den Constitutionelle is a former Norwegian daily newspaper, published in Christiania, Norway from 1836 to 1847. The newspaper was founded by bookseller Johan Fjeldsted Dahl, and its first editor was Ulrik Anton Motzfeldt from 1836 to 1840. Andreas Munch edited the newspaper from 1841 to 1846...

in 1836, with assistance from Ulrik Anton Motzfeldt

Ulrik Anton Motzfeldt

Ulrik Anton Motzfeldt was a Norwegian jurist and politician. He served five terms in the Norwegian Parliament, including two years as President, was a professor in Christiania and an Assessor of the Supreme Court....

 and Carl Andreas Fougstad

Carl Andreas Fougstad

Carl Andreas Fougstad was a Norwegian politician.He was born and grew up in Alverstraumen, today in Lindås municipality.He graduated from the University of Oslo as cand.jur. in 1831...

. He was a co-founder of the gallery Christiania Kunstforening

Oslo Kunstforening

Oslo Kunstforening is an art gallery and art society located in Oslo, Norway.Oslo Kunstforening is located at Rådhusgata 19. The gallery, situated in one of the oldest houses in the Kvadraturen area, is the oldest artist gallery in Oslo. During the year, many varied shows are organized within the...

 in 1836, along with Johan Sebastian Welhaven

Johan Sebastian Welhaven

Johan Sebastian Cammermeyer Welhaven was a Norwegian author, poet, critic and art theorist.-Background:...

, Frederik Stang

Frederik Stang

Frederik Stang was a Norwegian lawyer, public servant, and politician who served as Norway's first prime minister....

  and Henrik Heftye

Henrik Heftye

Henrik Thomassen Heftye was a Norwegian businessman.-Personal life:He was born in Christiania as the son of merchant Thomas Johannessen Heftye and his wife Katharina Tschudi . He did not marry, but through his sister Betha he was a brother-in-law of ship-owner Mogens Thorsen...

.

Dahl is immortalized through Henrik Wergeland

Henrik Wergeland

Henrik Arnold Thaulow Wergeland was a Norwegian writer, most celebrated for his poetry but also a prolific playwright, polemicist, historian, and linguist...

's farce

Farce

In theatre, a farce is a comedy which aims at entertaining the audience by means of unlikely, extravagant, and improbable situations, disguise and mistaken identity, verbal humour of varying degrees of sophistication, which may include word play, and a fast-paced plot whose speed usually increases,...

 Papegøien

Papegøien

Papegøien is a farce from 1835, written by Norwegian writer Henrik Wergeland under the pseudonym "Siful Sifadda".The farce was published by Johan Dahl's publishing house, and Dahl himself is immortalized through Wergeland's farce, where his course of life forms the basis for a wild parody....

(The Parrot) from 1835, where his course of life forms the basis for a wild parody. When Dahl learned about the farce, he offered to publish the book, something Wergeland found amusing and agreed to. But as a revenge Dahl put a label on the title page of the book, without Wergeland's knowledge, where it said that the complete profit was to be donated to charity.

Further reading