Arne Hestenes

Arne Hestenes, pen name Plut (29 January 1920 – 3 January 1995) was a Norwegian journalist.

He was born in Tromsø as a son of manager Ola Hestenes (1891–1961) and Gerda Kristine Larsen (1897–1963). He was a brother of barrister Olav Hestenes. He started his writing career with columns in Tromsø Stiftstidende, but wanted to work for Dagbladet and got his first article on print there at the age of 17. He took the examen artium in 1939 and moved to study at the University of Oslo. The studies were interrupted following the 1943 University of Oslo fire, when the Nazi German occupants of Norway closed the university. Hestenes fled to Stockholm and worked for Sikringstjenesten in Milorg. After the war he returned to Norway, graduated with the cand.mag. degree in 1947 and was hired in Dagbladet.^[1]

He remained in Dagbladet for the rest of his career, and became famous for his personal style. He released many books with collections of his newspaper writings; some of the more well-known books are Galleri Plut (1969) and Zoom (1976). He was awarded the Narvesen Prize for journalism in 1963,^[2] and also won the Oslo City artist award. He wrote portraits, columns and feature pieces (literary journalism), and was a restaurant critic and film critic.^[1] He was even a jury member of the 1984 Cannes Film Festival,^[3] and an honorary citizen of Cannes as well as his hometown Tromsø.^[1]

He was decorated with the Royal Norwegian Order of St. Olav (Knight, First Class) in 1991, as well as the French Ordre national du Mérite (Chevalier) and the Ordre des Arts et des Lettres (Officier). He was married to Karin Sonja Bergan (1939–2001),^[1] and lived between Aker brygge and Solli plass.^[4] He died in January 1995 in Oslo.^[1]

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