Seyersted was born in
Oslo, Norway. He earned his master's degree at
Harvard University in 1959 and earned his doctoral degree (dr. philos.) in 1969 at the University of Oslo. He was internationally renowned for his monograph on 19th century novelist
Kate Chopin. His last monograph was a study of the works of
Robert Cantwell. According to Professor of American Literature Per Winther, Seyersted’s book on Chopin became an important reference for the emergence of feminist literary criticism in the 1970s and 1980s and his work has been crucial in the rediscovery of Chopin.[1]