Among his published books were Amtmandens Døttre by Camilla Collett, Synnøve Solbakken by Bjørnstjerne Bjørnson, and Kongs-Emnerne by Henrik Ibsen.

[1][2] Dahl founded the newspaper Den Constitutionelle in 1836, with assistance from Ulrik Anton Motzfeldt and Carl Andreas Fougstad.

[5] Dahl is immortalized through Henrik Wergeland's farce Papegøien (The Parrot) from 1835, where his course of life forms the basis for a wild parody.

[6][7] When Dahl learned about the farce, he offered to publish the book, something Wergeland found amusing and agreed to.

But as a revenge Dahl put a label on the title page of the book, without Wergeland's knowledge, where it said that the complete profit was to be donated to charity.