{"product_id":"minningar-fra-london-og-paris-46106-42168","title":"Memories from London and Paris # 46106","description":"Memories from London and Paris. By Frímann B. Arngrímsson.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e A few words of remembrance about Frímann B. Arngrímsson by Geir Jónasson.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e \u003cbr\u003eFrímann Bjarnason Arngrímsson was born in Hörgárdalur in 1855, the son of Bjarni Arngrímsson (a priest at Bægisá), and immigrated to the West in 1874 with the first large group from North Iceland in 1874. He was one of the first West Icelanders to obtain a university education, and worked on teaching and various progressive issues in Canada. Among other things, he founded the newspaper Heimskringla in Winnipeg in 1886, and was a promoter of both the establishment of an Icelandic high school and support for Iceland, which was experiencing various setbacks in those years. Frímann soon fell into disputes with some other West Iceland leaders, resigned from the publication of Heimskringla, and left Winnipeg around Christmas 1888. He had planned to pursue graduate studies at a university in the United States, and after some travel, he ended up in Massachusetts. There he first worked as a teacher, including at a language school, but later at MIT research laboratories and at least two years in electrical factories. There he became very interested in bringing about the electrification of Iceland with what he called \"white coal\", i.e. hydroelectric power. Frímann came here twice to give lectures, in 1894-95, but his speech fell on deaf ears for most people. It took a quarter of a century for the powering of waterfalls to become feasible in Iceland. Frímann wanted to attribute his small success to the fact that he stood alone, poor and of low birth, against the conservatism of his countrymen and the interests of the coal merchants, but it is also clear from the sources that even the most optimistic people considered his plans unrealistic.\u003cbr\u003e \u003cbr\u003eAfter working in research laboratories in Britain for a year and a half, Frímann moved to Paris, poor and destitute, in the early summer of 1897. There he earned a living by writing, teaching, selling second-hand books, and working as a construction worker, and in doing so he enjoyed his good language skills. In his spare time he dabbled in philosophy, literature, and religion, and wrote letters to various Icelanders he knew or thought could support him. Many were little more than scornful of those who did not support his proposals of 1894-95, but he also points out various issues of progress for Iceland and offers his energies to work on them.","brand":"Bókin.is","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":51124783841608,"sku":"OSC-42168","price":6900.0,"currency_code":"ISK","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0916\/4029\/9848\/files\/46106.jpg?v=1754786319","url":"https:\/\/www.bokin.is\/en\/products\/minningar-fra-london-og-paris-46106-42168","provider":"bokin.is","version":"1.0","type":"link"}