Ola Bauer - Death and Legacy

Death and Legacy

Bauer died 12 June 1999, having battled cancer for one and half year. Bauer was involved in a dramatic television production, Jakttid, but as his condition worsened, he had to prioritize finishing his last novel, Forløperen. It was published 26 August 1999. Three years later, an anthology was published in Bauer's honor. Bauers bok, edited by Lars Saabye Christensen, contained contributions by among others Christensen, Kjartan Fløgstad, Espen Haavardsholm, Per Petterson, Dag Solstad, and Tove Nilsen. He was described by Solstad as extremely well-read, being particularly interested in authors like Louis-Ferdinand Céline and Jean Genet. In the anthology, Petterson compared Bauer's protagonists to Holden Caulfield of The Catcher in the Rye, a novel important to Bauer.

Bauer was survived by his wife Anne Gun, and his daughter, Anya Bauer Hartmark, born in 1972. Bauer had wanted her to be named "Mulele", after Pierre Mulele, and Bauer and his friends would refer to her using the nickname Mulle as a tribute to the Congolese revolutionary.