Thorleif Schjelderup (January 20, 1920 - May 28, 2006) was a Norwegian

Norway

Norway , officially the Kingdom of Norway, is a Nordic unitary constitutional monarchy whose territory comprises the western portion of the Scandinavian Peninsula, Jan Mayen, and the Arctic archipelago of Svalbard and Bouvet Island. Norway has a total area of and a population of about 4.9 million...

 author and in the 1940s and 1950s one of Norway's best ski jumpers

Ski jumping

Ski jumping is a sport in which skiers go down a take-off ramp, jump and attempt to land as far as possible down the hill below. In addition to the length of the jump, judges give points for style. The skis used for ski jumping are wide and long...

.

He was born in Aker

Aker, Norway

Aker is a former municipality in Akershus, which lends its name to a municipality and a county in Norway. The name originally belonged to a farm which was located near the current Old Aker Church...

 as a son of Ferdinand Schjelderup

Ferdinand Schjelderup

Ferdinand Schjelderup was a Norwegian mountaineer, Supreme Court Justice and resistance member during the German occupation of Norway.-Personal life:He was born in Kristiania as the son of Thorleif Frederik Schjelderup and Inga Berven...

 and his wife Marie Leigh Vogt.

He won a bronze medal in the 1948 Winter Olympics

1948 Winter Olympics

The 1948 Winter Olympics, officially known as the V Olympic Winter Games, was a winter multi-sport event celebrated in 1948 in St. Moritz, Switzerland. The Games were the first to be celebrated after World War II; it had been twelve years since the last Winter Games in 1936...

. That same year he met American

United States

The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...

 singer Anne Brown

Anne Brown

Anne Wiggins Brown was an African American soprano who created the role of "Bess" in the original production of George Gershwin's opera Porgy and Bess in 1935. She was also a radio and concert singer...

, who moved with him to Oslo

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...

where the couple eventually married. Schjelderup had a failed marriage, from 1940 to 1944, behind him.

Schjelderup published his first essay in 1952 and then wrote books in the field of sports and on Norwegian nature until his 2006 death.