Frithjof Sælen

Frithjof Sælen, Jr. (24 December 1917 – 1 January 2004) was a Norwegian writer, illustrator and member of the resistance during World War II.

Early life He was born in Bergen as the son of Frithjof Sælen (1892–1975) and Astrid Weltzin (1892–1978). His father was an accomplished gymnast, with an Olympic gold medal from 1912. Sælen Jr. was a swimmer during his youth. He took the examen artium in 1937, studied one year at commerce school and then moved to Oslo to study drawing and advertising. He fled Norway in 1944, travelling the Norwegian Sea with Leif "Shetlands-Larsen" Larsen. In the United Kingdom he worked for the Norwegian High Command. He was decorated with the Defence Medal. The book was also published in the United Kingdom under the title None but the Brave, and in France under the title Mission Suicide. The book sold well (500,000 copies by 2004) and along with Howarth's The Shetland Bus served as the source for the 1954 film in which Leif Larsen played himself – Shetlandsgjengen (released as Suicide Mission in the United States).

The children's book ("A Brave Ant") followed in 1948. In addition to writing, he worked with marketing, establishing a marketing bureau Marketing-Byrået with a colleague in 1955, and a consulting company in 1974.