Ole Torvalds

Ole Torvalds (4 August 1916 – 8 February 1995) was a Swedish-speaking Finnish journalist and poet. He was the father of journalist-politician Nils Torvalds and grandfather of software engineer Linus Torvalds, creator of the Linux kernel.

His full name was Ole Torvald Elis Saxberg (his mother was Gerda Saxberg ), but he was also named Karanko after his step father, Toivo Karanko. His family belongs to the Swedish-speaking minority. In 1935, after matriculating, he moved to Helsinki for studies at the University of Helsinki (until 1939) and In 1944 he was awarded a literature prize from Svenska Dagbladet (shared with Harry Martinson, Lars Ahlin and Elly Jannes). He also received the State Prize for Literature in 1954, the Tollander Prize in 1955, and the Falcken Prize in 1974

Translations Massan och du (The Crowd and You), Kurt Baschwitz Hangö fästning, Reino Aaltonen G. A. Serlachius oy 1868–1968. Ett familjeföretags öden (Swedish edition revised with Sargit Avellan) Ett sekel till havs, Effoas hundra första år 1883–1983, Paavo Haavikko De vandrande stövlarna (1945), later released as a revised edition titled Nio mans stövlar (1976), Pentti Haanpää Rubaiyat, Omar Khayyam Vandringsstaven (The Walking Staff), V. A. Koskenniemi Goethe-studier och andra litteraturhistoriska essäer (Goethe Studies and other literary-historical essays), V. A. Koskenniemi Sju kyrkor (Seven Churches), text by Mikko Ossa, photos by Reino Moilanen Åbo stads historia 1600–1721 (History of the City of Turku 1600-1721), Raimo Ranta Efter applåderna, Kosti Vehanen Sinuhe, egyptiern (The Egyptian), Mika Waltari (a translation with abridgements authorized by the author )