in the 1940s mykle was active as journalist and writer in the norwegian labour movement. he wrote scripts for their election campaign films and plays for amateur theatre groups associated with the labour movement. mykle debuted as an author in 1948 with "taustigen", a collection of short stories. other short story collections included "jeg er like glad, sa gutten" (1952), "kors på halsen" (1958) and "largo" (1967). his novel "tyven, tyven skal du hete" (published in english as "the hotel room") was written in (1951). his two subsequent novels, "lasso rundt fru luna" (published in english as "lasso around the moon") (1954) and "sangen om den røde rubin" ("the song of the red ruby") (1956) have strong autobiographical tendencies and are regarded as cornerstones in norwegian literature. his last published novel was "rubicon" (1965), originally thought of as a sequel to the previous two, finishing to the tale about ash burlefoot.