Knut Hamsun

Look Back on Happiness (Dodo Press) Knut Hamsun

Knut Hamsun (1859-1952) was a leading Norwegian author and recipient of the Nobel Prize in Literature for 1920. He was born as Knud Pedersen in Lom, Gudbrandsdal, Norway. He grew up in poverty in Hamarøy in Nordland. At 17, he became an apprentice to a ropemaker, and at about the same time he started to write. He spent several years in America, travelling and working at various jobs, and published his impressions under the title Fra det moderne Amerikas Aandsliv (1889). Hamsun first received wide acclaim with his 1890 novel Hunger. The semi-autobiographical work described a young and egocentric writer's descent into near madness as a result of hunger and poverty in the Norwegian capital of Kristiania. To many, the novel presaged the writings of Franz Kafka and other twentieth-century novelists with its internal monologue and bizarre logic. His prose often contains rapturous depictions of the natural world, with intimate reflections on the Norwegian woodlands and coastline. For this reason, he has been linked with the spiritual movement known as pantheism. This connection between the characters and their natural environment is exemplified in the novels Pan, A Wanderer Plays on Muted Strings, and the epic Growth of the Soil.