Knut Hamsun

Knut Hamsun was a Norwegian author who is remembered in particular for his novels Hunger and Growth of the Soil. He was awarded the Nobel Prize for Literature in 1920 for his outstanding literary works.

Knut Hamsun was born on 4 August 1859 in Nordland, Norway and grew up in humble circumstances. He was the fourth of seven children and his father was a laborer and smallholder. His mother was a tenant farmer—a unique position for a woman in that era. It was as a boy growing up in Norway that Hamsun's imagination started to wander and he would begin to write his stories. He attended Rud School and Malmoestrom school, but he did not complete his studies at either institution.

At the age of eighteen, Hamsun left Norway and went to America, arriving in New York in October 1882. It took him several months to find work; he was a laborer and editorial assistant on various papers and magazines, slowly earning enough to make a living. He decided to return to Norway in 1888 and it was while back in his homeland that he developed his artistic talent as a writer. In 1890 Hamsun wrote Febrilsk Besettelse, a story about an artist's psychological breakdown, and it was this groundbreaking work which would thrust him immediately into the literary limelight.

During the following years, Hamsun wrote several renowned novels, including Sult (Hunger), Mysterier (Mysteries), Pan (Pan), and Markens Grøde (Growth of the Soil). He was recognized for his immense talent and was awarded the Nobel Prize in Literature in 1920. Along with his Nobel Prize, Hamsun also gained global fame after his books were translated into several languages across the world.

His novels often featured themes of mental illness, irrational behavior, and alienation—ideas he developed partly from his time in rural Norway, where he held a deep connection with the land and its people. His works were acclaimed for their poetic language, dark description of life, and for his humorous dialogue. Hamsun became well-known for his modernized version of the Norwegian language and for his profound description of daily life and ordinary people.

Hamsun continued to write until his death in 1952. He became an icon in Norway and is considered one of the most important authors of the 20th century. Not only did Hamsun become Norway's first modern author, he was also one of the first authors to bring Scandinavian literature to the attention of the international literary public. Hamsun's works have been published in numerous languages and continue to be read and studied by scholars today.

Knut Hamsun remains a highly influential presence within the Scandinavian literary world and more widely across the globe. While his works are often dark and harrowing, they are thought-provoking and powerful, and serve to offer an important record of life in Norway during the late 19th and early 20th centuries.