Hallberg Hallmundsson (1930-2011) was born near Stokkseyri in southern Iceland but grew up in Reykjavík. He attended local schools, working during summer vacations first as an errand boy and later as a carpenter. While at the University of Iceland he became involved in politics, joining Þjóðvarnarflokkur Íslands (National Preservation Party of Iceland), which was dedicated to riding the country of the American military bases. He then worked on the weekly party paper, writing a column on cultural affairs. After attending the University of Barcelona, where he studied Spanish, he join the Iðunn publishing company in Reykjavík, working a editor, translator and designer. In 1960, he moved to New York with his American wife, and he worked there until 2001, long as an encyclopedia editor and later a magazine copy editor. Besides his sixteen books of poetry and two of short stories, published in Iceland, he has edited An Anthology of Scandinavian Literatur (1966) and Icelandic Folk and Fairy Tales (1987). His book translations, from and into Icelandic and from other Scandinavian languages, exceed five dozen.