Villy Sorensen, 72; Danish Writer

Villy Sorensen, one of Denmark’s foremost writers and philosophers, died Sunday at a Copenhagen hospital. He was 72 and had been battling cancer, but the cause of death was not announced.

Sorensen was the elder statesman of Danish letters whose award-winning works focused on the conflict between the human intellect and human nature, and combined imaginative stories with a humorous style. He perceived people as being fundamentally split between intellect and emotion.

His major works include “Harmless Tales,” a 1955 collection of eight short stories that are somewhat fantastic. He also was known for “Tutelary Tales,” a 1964 collection of stories written in a factual-fiction style that included many historical figures, such as St. Paul, Judas and the Emperor Nero and explored the subversion of power.

The son of a Copenhagen railway conductor, Sorensen studied at universities in Copenhagen and Freiburg, Germany. He played a central role in Denmark’s intellectual and cultural life in the 1950s by co-editing the trend-setting literary journal Vindrosen, which introduced important German authors to Denmark.

He was awarded the Swedish Academy’s Nordic Prize in 1986, the Nordic Council Literature Prize in 1974 and the Danish Academy Prize in 1962.