Jens Ingvald Bjørneboe (9 October 1920 – 9 May 1976) was a Norwegian writer whose work spanned a number of literary formats.

Bjørneboe was a harsh and eloquent critic of Norwegian society and Western civilization as a whole.

The Bjørneboe family originally immigrated from Germany in the 17th century and later adopted their Norwegian name.

Coming from a long line of marine officers, Bjørneboe also went to sea as a young man.

[2] After having struggled with depression and alcoholism for a long time, he committed suicide by hanging on the island of Veierland on 9 May 1976.

[3] In his obituary in Aftenposten, Bjørneboe's life and legacy were described as follows: For 25 years Jens Bjørneboe was a center of unrest in Norwegian cultural life: Passionately concerned with contemporary problems in nearly all their aspects, controversial and with the courage to be so, with a conscious will to carry things to extremes.