Erling Kagge

Kagge has a law degree from the University of Oslo. From September 1990 to September 1992 Kagge worked as a lawyer for Norwegian industrial conglomerate Norsk Hydro.

After his record-breaking feat of reaching the "three poles", Kagge attended Cambridge University to study philosophy for three terms. In 1996, he founded the eponymous Oslo-based publishing house, Kagge Forlag. In 2000 Kagge Forlag acquired one of Norway's oldest publishing companies, J.M. Stenersens Forlag. Kagge and Stenersens publish approximately 120 new titles annually. It is Norway's largest publisher of nonfiction. In 2021 Kagge sold his publishing company and in 2025 he left his position as publisher.

Kagge has written nine books on exploration, philosophy and art collecting, which have been translated into 42 languages. He has written for the Financial Times, The New York Times and The Guardian.

Kagge lives in Oslo and has three daughters: Nor, Ingrid and Solveig. Their mother, Jorunn Anne Salthella, died of pancreatic cancer in 2022.

Kagge is a leading collector of international contemporary art. Five major European museums have dedicated shows of his collection in the last ten years: Astrup Fearnley Museum for Modern Art in Oslo, Fondacion van Gogh Arles in France, Sala Santander in Madrid, Museion in Bolzano, Italy and KODE in Bergen, Norway.