Born: Knut Pedersen in Lom, Norway, 4 August 1859. Family: Married 1) Bergliot Goepfert in 1898 (divorced 1909), one daughter; 2) Marie Andersen in 1909, two sons and two daughters. Career: Apprenticed to a shoemaker in Bodo; then a road worker and wanderer for 10 years; lived in the United States, 1882-84, 1886-88: streetcar conductor in Chicago, farmhand in North Dakota, and secretary, and lecturer in Minneapolis; lived for several years in Paris, early 1890s; travelled in Finland, Russia, and Denmark during the 1890s and 1900s; writer after 1890, and after 1911 farmer in Hamar0y, later near Grimstad; openly supported Quisling’s pro-German party during World War II: indicted, fined, and briefly confined to a mental institution after the war, Awards: Nobel prize for literature, 1920. Died: 19 February 1952.
Publications
Collection
Samlede Verker. 15 vols., 1954-56.
Fiction
Den gaadefulde [The Mysterious One]. 1877.
Bj0rger. 1878.
Sult. 1890; as Hunger, translated by George Egerton, 1899; translated by Robert Bly, 1967; also translated by Sverre Lyngstad, 1998.
Mysterier. 1892; as Mysteries, translated by Arthur G. Chater, 1927; also translated by Gerry Bothmer, 1971.
Ny jord. 1893; as Shallow Soil, translated by Carl Christian Hyllested, 1914.
Redakt0r Lynge [Editor Lynge]. 1893.
Pan. 1894; as Pan, translated by W.W. Worster, 1920; also translated by James W. McFarlane, 1955.
Siesta. 1897.
Victoria. 1898; as Victoria, translated by Arthur G. Chater, 1923; as Victoria: A Love Story translated by Oliver Stallybrass, 1969.
Kratskrog [Brushwood]. 1903.
Svarmere. 1904; as Mothwise, translated by W.W. Worster, 1921, as Dreamers, 1921; also translated by Tom Geddes, 1995.
Stridende liv [Struggling Life]. 1905.
Under H0ststjarnen. 1906; as Autumn, translated by W.W. Worster, in Wanderers, 1922; as Under the Autumn Star, translated by Oliver and Gunnvor Stallybrass, in The Wanderer, 1975.
Benoni. 1908; as Benoni, translated by Arthur G. Chater, 1925.
Rosa. 1908; as Rosa, translated by Arthur G. Chater, 1925.
En vandrer spiller med sordin. 1909; as With Muted Strings, translated by W.W. Worster, in Wanderers, 1922; as A Wanderer Plays on Mute Strings, translated by Worster, 1922; as On Muted Strings, translated by Oliver and Gunnvor Stallybrass, in The Wanderer, 1975.
Den siste glade. 1912; as Look Back on Happiness, translated by Paula Wiking, 1940; as The Last Joy, translated by Sverre Lynstad, 2002.
B0rn av tiden. 1913; as Children of the Age, translated by J.S. Scott, 1924.
Segelfoss by. 1915; as Segelfoss Town, translated by J.S. Scott, 1925.
Markens gr0de. 1917; as The Growth of the Soil, translated by W.W. Worster, 1920.
Konerne ved Vandposten. 1920; as The Women at the Pump, translated by Arthur G. Chater, 1928; also translated by Oliver and Gunnvor Stallybrass, 1978.
Wanderers (includes Autumn; With Muted Strings), translated by W.W. Worster. 1922.
Siste kapitel. 1923; as Chapter the Last, translated by Arthur G. Chater, 1929.
Landstrykere. 1927; as Vagabonds, translated by Eugene Gay-Tifft, 1930; as Wayfarers, translated by James W. McFarlane, 1980.
August. 1930; as August, translated by Eugene Gay-Tifft, 1931.
Men livet lever. 1933; as The Road Leads On, translated by Eugene Gay-Tifft, 1934.
Ringen sluttet. 1936; as The Ring Is Closed, translated by Eugene Gay-Tifft, 1937.
Paa gjengrodde Stier. 1949; as On Overgrown Paths, translated by Carl L. Anderson, 1968; also translated by Sverre Lyngstad, 1999.
The Wanderer (includes Under the Autumn Stars; On Muted Strings),translated by Oliver and Gunnvor Stallybrass. 1975.
Night Roamers and Other Stories, translated by Tiina Nunnally. 1992.
Plays
Vedrigetsport [At the Gates of the Kingdom] (produced 1896). 1895.
Livets Spil [The Game of Life] (produced 1896). 1896.
Aftenr0de [Evening Glow] (produced 1898). 1898.
Munken Vendt [Friar Vendt] (produced 1926). 1902.
Dronning Tamara [Queen Tamara] (produced 1903). 1903.
Livet i void (produced 1910). 1910; as In the Grip of Life, translated by Graham and Tristan Rawson, 1924.
Verse
Det vilde kor [The Wild Chorus]. 1904.
Dikte. 1921.
Other
Lars Oftedal (articles). 1889.
Fra det moderne Amerikas aandsliv. 1889; as The Cultural Life of Modern America, edited and translated by Barbara Gordon Morgridge, 1969.
I &ventyrland [In the Land of Fairy Tales]. 1903.
Sproget ifare [Language in Danger]. 1918.
Samlede Verker [Collected Works]. 12 vols., 1918; revised edition,17 vols., 1936.
Artikler 1899-1928, edited by Francis Bull. 1939.
Knut Hamsun som hun var [Letters 1879-1949], edited by Tore Hamsun. 1956, Paa Turne treforedrag om Litteratur [On Tour]. 1960.
On the Prairie: A Sketch of the Red River Valley, translated by John Christianson. 1961.
Brev til Marie [Letters to Marie 1908-38], edited by Tore Hamsun. 1970.
Over havet: artikler, reisebrev, edited by Lars Frode Larsen. 1990.
Selected Letters [vol. 1] 1879-1898, edited by Harald Naess and James W. McFarlane. 1990.
Critical Studies:
Hamsun by Hanna Astrup Larsen, 1922; Six Scandinavian Novelists: Lie, Jacobsen, Heidenstam, Selma Lagerlof, Hamsun, Sigrid Undset by Alrik Gustafson, 1940; Hamsun (in Norwegian) by Tore Hamsun, 1959; Konflikt og visjon by Rolf Nyboe Nettum, 1970; ”Critical Attitudes to Hamsun 1890-1969” by Ronald Popperwell, in Scandinavica, 9, 1970; ”Knut Hamsun’s Pan: Myth and Symbol” by Henning Sehmsdorf, in Edda, 1974; Knut Hamsun som modernist by Peter Kierkegaard, 1975; The Hero in Scandinavian Literature edited by John M. Weinstock and Robert T. Rovinsky, 1975; ”Knut Hamsun’s Anti-Semitism” by Allen Simpson, in Edda, 1977; Knut Hamsun by Harald Naess, 1984; Enigma: The Life of Knut Hamsun by Robert Ferguson, 1987; The Roots of Modernist Narrative: Knut Hamsun’s Novels Hunger, Mysteries, and Pan by Martin Humpal, 1999.
Knut Hamsun burst upon Norwegian literature in 1890 with a series of lectures attacking the realist writers, including Ibsen; he appealed instead for a new kind of writing, which he called ”psychological literature.” His first novel, Sult (Hunger), published in the same year, embodies his theories. It is the story of a mind—a lively, fantastic, creative mind which ever and again rises irrepressibly above the vicissitudes of a mundane bodily existence. ”The unconscious life of the soul” is the centre of focus; the starving artist pacing the streets of Christiania is not an occasion for an attack on social injustice but a creator of a vibrant inner world.
Inspired, often unstable visionaries are the heroes of Hamsun’s other early novels Mysterier (Mysteries), Pan, and Victoria. With these novels Hamsun became the first Modernist writer in Scandinavia, reflecting the turbulent inner conflict of modern man; Nietzsche and Dostoevskii were among his antecedents. The interplay of instinct and impulse, the celebration of spontaneity over sober reflection and nature over civilization give his heroes a quixotic air of inconsistency which made his contemporaries dismiss them as ”erratic.” His prose style is equally innovative, and has proved inim-itable—though many have since tried to imitate it. There is a lyrical intensity in his phrasing which makes whole chapters of Pan and Victoria read like prose poems; the rhythms are incantatory, the mood ecstatic. The novels are hymns to love—but it is a self-destructive, impossible love which bars the way to its own fulfilment and mocks at its own despair.
Hamsun’s heroes grew older as he himself grew old; and the exuberance of youth gave way to a more disillusioned world-weariness. Social issues, which he had previously dismissed, also preoccupied him increasingly. In B0rn av tiden (Children of the Age) and Segelfoss by (Segelfoss Town) he attacked the decadence of modern capitalist society and the emergent workers’ movements. Markens gr0de (The Growth of the Soil) celebrated instead his ideal, the noble peasant who rejects the softness of city ways and chooses the harsh, unremitting struggle of the pioneering farming life.
Nostalgia for a lost patriarchal era and dislike of modern industrial society were among the factors which led Hamsun towards the end of his long life to support Hitler, a fateful choice for which his countrymen have still not forgiven him. However, the best of his writing is not marred by his political blindness. In his final trilogy, Landstrykere (Wayfarers), August, and Men rivet lever (The Road Leads On), the vitality of his inventiveness and the suppleness of his style are undiminished. August, the central character, is Hamsun’s last great adventurer and orchestrator of humanity’s dreams—though his stock is running low, and the chill winds of old age and bankruptcy are felt with increasing keenness. But like his creator, he is dogged to the end, and the rich gallery of characters around him is depicted with discerning clarity and a fine sense of life’s ironies.
