Elster made his literary debut in 1936 with the novel
Muren. He was a sales manager at the
publishing company Tiden Norsk Forlag in the late 1930s. He was a member of the communist movement
Mot Dag before the
German occupation of Norway 1940–1945, during which he had to flee the country.
Håndslag was smuggled into Norway and distributed illegally. Funded by the
Norwegian legation in Stockholm, it was issued once every second week, and was printed in 15–20,000 copies towards the end of the war. Elster was a foreign editor for
Arbeiderbladet from 1945 to 1946, and editor of the
labour movement's magazine
Kontakt from 1947 to 1954. He then wrote for
Arbeiderbladet for almost ten years, from 1954 to 1963. During this time he also wrote several non-fiction books, mainly political literature:
Frihet og demokrati (Freedom and Democracy, 1947),
Øst og Vest (East and West, 1948),
Sosialismen under debatt (Socialism Under Debate, 1950) and
Sovjetmysteriet (The Soviet Mystery, 1957). In 1986 he and Magli Elster were awarded the
Fritt Ord Award. He died in 2006 in Oslo. ==References==