Gaarder: writer, philosopher, teacher, benefactor
Born into a literary family, Jostein Gaarder’s creative career as an intellectualist, philosopher and author of several novels, short stories, children's books and specialist religion and ethics literature, started with writing scientific books and being the co-author of school books. For several years, he also worked as a philosophy teacher. His first non-fiction book The diagnosis and other stories appeared in 1986, while the 500 pages philosophical novel for adolescents, Sophie's World – for which he is best known – first in 1991, and was a bestseller in Norway for 3 years before it reached world success. In fact, it was nominated as best scientific literature of the year book in 1995 (Gerbutavičius, 2010).
Gaarder himself never expected the book to achieve such great success – actually he didn’t spend much time writing it as his wife encouraged him to finish it quickly. Not knowing what to do with the incomes of the book, Gaarder and his wife Siri Dannevig created Sophie Prize in 1997 for the promotion of human rights and sustainable development. Named after the novel, it is an annual international environment and development prize of 77. 000 €, where voluntary organizations, institutions, research environments as well as people with knowledge and interest for environment and development can nominate candidates to the prize.