Heinesen, William

William Heinesen was born in Torshavn, the Faeroe Islands, where his father was a merchant and ship owner of peasant stock. His mother was Danish and Danish was spoken in the home. Heinesen started to write as a child, but as he was the oldest son, he was sent to Copenhagen to attend commercial school at the age of seventeen. He later abandoned his studies in order to write poetry and paint. He lived between the Faeroes and Copenhagen, where he worked as a journalist, for a number of years. He returned home in 1932 and remained in the Faeroes for the rest of his life, working in the family business until it closed down in 1952. Heinesen was also a composer and a prominent artist and book illustrator with several works in the Torshavn art museum. A book with his paintings was published on his eightieth birthday and in conjunction with his centenary a statue of him was erected in front of his house in Torshavn.