Knut Hamsun

Knut Hamsun (4 August 1859 – 19 February 1952)

was a Norwegian writer who was awarded the Nobel Knut Hamsun
Prize in Literature in 1920. Hamsun's work spans more
than 70 years and shows variation with regard to
consciousness, subject, perspective and environment.
He published more than 23 novels, a collection of
poetry, some short stories and plays, a travelogue,
works of non-fiction and some essays.

Hamsun is considered to be "one of the most

influential and innovative literary stylists of the past
hundred years" (ca. 1890–1990).[1] He pioneered
psychological literature with techniques of stream of
consciousness and interior monologue, and influenced
authors such as Thomas Mann, Franz Kafka, Maxim
Gorky, Stefan Zweig, Henry Miller, Hermann Hesse,
Hamsun in 1939
John Fante, James Kelman, Charles Bukowski and
Ernest Hemingway.[2] Isaac Bashevis Singer called Born Knud Pedersen
4 August 1859
Hamsun "the father of the modern school of literature
Lom, Gudbrandsdalen, United
in his every aspect—his subjectiveness, his
Kingdoms of Sweden and
fragmentariness, his use of flashbacks, his lyricism.
Norway
The whole modern school of fiction in the twentieth (present-day Lom, Norway)
century stems from Hamsun".[3] Since 1916, several of
Died 19 February 1952 (aged 92)
Hamsun's works have been adapted into motion
Nørholm, Grimstad, Norway
pictures. On 4 August 2009, the Knut Hamsun Centre
Occupation Writer, poet, social critic
was opened in Hamarøy Municipality.[4]
Language Norwegian
The young Hamsun objected to realism and naturalism. Period 1877–1949
He argued that the main object of modernist literature Genre Novel · short story · play ·
should be the intricacies of the human mind, that poetry · travelogue · non-
writers should describe the "whisper of blood, and the fiction
pleading of bone marrow".[5] Hamsun is considered Literary Neo-romanticism
the "leader of the Neo-Romantic revolt at the turn of movement
Neo-realism
the 20th century", with works such as Hunger (1890),
Modernism
Mysteries (1892), Pan (1894), and Victoria (1898).[6]
His later works—in particular his "Nordland novels"— Notable Nobel Prize in Literature
awards (1920)
were influenced by the Norwegian new realism,
portraying everyday life in rural Norway and often Spouses Bergljot Göpfert (née Bech)
employing local dialect, irony, and humour.[7] Hamsun (1898-1906)
only published one poetry collection, The Wild Choir, Marie Hamsun (1909-1952)
which has been set to music by several composers. Children 5
Hamsun had strong anti-English views, in part due to Signature
the treatment of Norway during World War I, and
openly supported Adolf Hitler and Nazi Germany,
travelling to meet Hitler during the German occupation
of Norway.[8][9][10] Due to his professed support for the occupation of Norway and the Quisling regime,
he was charged with treason after the war. He was not convicted, officially due to psychological problems
and issues relating to old age, but was issued a heavy fine in 1948.[11][12][13] Hamsun's last book, On
Overgrown Paths, authored in semi-imprisonment in Landvik, concerned his treatment and rebuttal of
accusations of his mental ineptness.[14][13]

Biography

Early life
Knut Hamsun was born as Knud Pedersen in Lom, Norway in the
Gudbrandsdal valley.[15] He was the fourth son (of seven children) of Tora
Olsdatter and Peder Pedersen. When he was three, the family moved to
Hamsund in Hamarøy Municipality in Nordland county.[16] They were
poor and an uncle had invited them to farm his land for him.

At nine Knut was separated from his family and lived with his uncle Hans
Olsen, who needed help with the post office he ran. Olsen used to beat and
starve his nephew, and Hamsun later stated that his chronic nervous
Hamsun in 1890, the year
difficulties were due to the way his uncle treated him.
he published his first major
work, Hunger
In 1874 he finally escaped back to Lom. For the next five years he did any
job for money; he was a store clerk, peddler, shoemaker's apprentice,
sheriff's assistant, and an elementary-school teacher.[17]

At 17 he became a ropemaker's apprentice; at about the same time he started to write. He asked
businessman Erasmus Zahl to give him significant monetary support, and Zahl agreed. Hamsun later used
Zahl as a model for the character Mack appearing in his novels Pan (1894), Dreamers (1904), Benoni
(1908) and Rosa (1908).[18]

He spent several years in America, traveling and working at various jobs, and published his impressions
under the title Fra det moderne Amerikas Aandsliv (1889).

Early literary career

Working all those odd jobs paid off,[19] and he published his first book: Den Gaadefulde: En
Kjærlighedshistorie fra Nordland (The Enigmatic Man: A Love Story from Northern Norway, 1877). It
was inspired from the experiences and struggles he endured from his jobs.

In his second novel Bjørger (1878), he attempted to imitate Bjørnstjerne Bjørnson's writing style of the
Icelandic saga narrative. The melodramatic story follows a poet, Bjørger, and his love for Laura. This
book was published under the pseudonym Knud Pedersen Hamsund. This book later served as the basis
for Victoria: En Kærligheds Historie (1898; translated as Victoria: A Love
Story, 1923).[20]

As of 1898 Hamsun was among the contributors of Ringeren, a political

and cultural magazine established by Sigurd Ibsen.[21]

Major works
Hamsun first received wide acclaim with his 1890 novel Hunger (Sult).
The semiautobiographical work described a young writer's descent into
near madness as a result of hunger and poverty in the Norwegian capital
of Kristiania (modern name Oslo). To many, the novel presages the
writings of Franz Kafka and other twentieth-century novelists with its
internal monologue and bizarre logic. After Edvard Munch, Knut
Hamsun, 1896,
A theme to which Hamsun often returned is that of the perpetual photogravure, National
wanderer, an itinerant stranger (often the narrator) who shows up and Gallery of Art, Washington,
insinuates himself into the life of small rural communities. This wanderer Rosenwald Collection,
theme is central to the novels Mysteries, Pan, Under the Autumn Star, The 1951.10.360

Last Joy, Vagabonds, Rosa, and others.

Hamsun's 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 ("No one knows God," he once wrote, "man knows only gods.").[22] Hamsun saw
mankind and nature united in a strong, sometimes mystical bond. 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, "his monumental work" credited with securing him the Nobel Prize in
literature in 1920.[23]

World War II, arrest and trial

During World War II, Hamsun supported the German war effort. He courted and met with high-ranking
Nazi officers, including Adolf Hitler. Nazi Minister of Propaganda Joseph Goebbels wrote a long and
enthusiastic diary entry concerning a private meeting with Hamsun; according to Goebbels, Hamsun's
"faith in German victory is unshakable".[24] In 1940 Hamsun wrote that "the Germans are fighting for
us".[25] After Hitler's death, he published a short obituary in which he described him as "a warrior for
mankind" and "a preacher of the gospel of justice for all nations".

After the war, he was detained by police on 14 June 1945, for treason, then committed to a hospital in
Grimstad (Grimstad sykehus) "due to his advanced age", according to Einar Kringlen (a professor and
medical doctor).[26] In 1947 he was tried in Grimstad and fined.[27] Norway's supreme court reduced the
fine from 575,000 to 325,000 Norwegian kroner.[28]
After the war, Hamsun's views on the Germans during the war were a cause of serious grief for the
Norwegians, and they tried to separate their world-famous writer from his Nazi beliefs. At the trial
Hamsun had pleaded ignorance. Deeper explanations involve his contradictory personality, his distaste
for hoi polloi, his inferiority complex, a profound distress at the spread of indiscipline, antipathy toward
the interwar democracy, and especially his Anglophobia.[29]

Death
Knut Hamsun died on 19 February 1952, aged 92, in Grimstad. His ashes are buried in the garden of his
home at Nørholm in Grimstad Municipality.[30]

Legacy
Thomas Mann described him as a "descendant of Fyodor Dostoyevsky and Friedrich Nietzsche." Arthur
Koestler was a fan of his love stories. H. G. Wells praised Markens Grøde (1917) for which Hamsun was
awarded the Nobel Prize in Literature. Isaac Bashevis Singer was a fan of his modern subjectivism, use of
flashbacks, his use of fragmentation, and his lyricism.[20] A character in Charles Bukowski's book Women
referred to him as the greatest writer who has ever lived.[31]

A fifteen-volume edition of Hamsun's complete works was published in 1954. In 2009, to mark the 150th
anniversary of his birth, a new 27-volume edition of his complete works was published, including short
stories, poetry, plays, and articles not included in the 1954 edition. For this new edition, all of Hamsun's
works underwent slight linguistic modifications in order to make them more accessible to contemporary
Norwegian readers.[32] Fresh English translations of two of his major works, Growth of the Soil and Pan,
were published in 1998.

Hamsun's works remain popular. In 2009, a Norwegian biographer stated, "We can’t help loving him,
though we have hated him all these years ... That’s our Hamsun trauma. He’s a ghost that won’t stay in
the grave."[33]

Three of Hamsun's homes (Hamsund gård in Hamarøy Municipality, Hamsunstugu in Garmo in Lom
Municipality, and Nørholm in Grimstad Municipality) are open to the public as museums, in addition to
the Knut Hamsun Centre in Hamarøy.

The whereabouts of Hamsun's Nobel Prize medal remain unknown.[34]

Writing techniques
Along with August Strindberg, Henrik Ibsen, and Sigrid Undset, Hamsun formed a quartet of
Scandinavian authors who became internationally known for their works. Hamsun pioneered
psychological literature with techniques of stream of consciousness and interior monologue, as found in
material by, for example, Joyce, Proust, Mansfield and Woolf. His writing also had a major influence on
Franz Kafka.[35]

Personal life
In 1898, Hamsun married Bergljot Göpfert (née Bech), who bore
daughter Victoria, but the marriage ended in 1906. Hamsun then
married Marie Andersen (1881–1969) in 1909 and she was his
companion until the end of his life. They had four children: sons
Tore and Arild and daughters Ellinor and Cecilia.

Marie wrote about her life with Hamsun in two memoirs. She was
a promising actress when she met Hamsun but ended her career
and traveled with him to Hamarøy. They bought a farm, the idea
Family portrait on the stairs of "Villa
being "to earn their living as farmers, with his writing providing
Havgløtt"; left to right: Tore Hamsun,
some additional income".
Marie Hamsun, Arild Hamsun, Knut
Hamsun and Ellinor Hamsun.
After a few years they decided to move south, to Larvik. In 1918
they bought Nørholm, an old, somewhat dilapidated manor house
between Lillesand and Grimstad. The main residence was restored and redecorated. Here Hamsun could
occupy himself with writing undisturbed, although he often travelled to write in other cities and places
(preferably in spartan housing).

Racism and admiration for Hitler

From his youth onward, Hamsun espoused anti-egalitarian and racist beliefs. In The Cultural Life of
Modern America (1889), he expressed his firm opposition to miscegenation: "The Negros are and will
remain Negros, a nascent human form from the tropics, rudimentary organs on the body of white society.
Instead of founding an intellectual elite, America has established a mulatto studfarm."[36]

Hamsun wrote several newspaper articles in the course of the Second World War, including his notorious
1940 assertion that "the Germans are fighting for us, and now are crushing England's tyranny over us and
all neutrals".[25] In 1943, he sent Germany's minister of propaganda Joseph Goebbels his Nobel Prize
medal as a gift. His biographer Thorkild Hansen interpreted this as part of the strategy to get an audience
with Hitler.[37] Hamsun was eventually invited to meet with Hitler; during the meeting, he complained
about the German civilian administrator in Norway, Josef Terboven, and asked that imprisoned
Norwegian citizens be released, enraging Hitler.[38] Otto Dietrich describes the meeting in his memoirs as
the only time that another person was able to get a word in edgeways with Hitler. He attributes this to
Hamsun's deafness. Regardless, Dietrich notes that it took Hitler three days to get over his anger.[39]
Hamsun also on other occasions helped Norwegians who had been imprisoned for resistance activities
and tried to influence German policies in Norway.[40]
Nevertheless, a week after Hitler's death, Hamsun wrote a eulogy for him, saying “He was a warrior, a
warrior for mankind, and a prophet of the gospel of justice for all nations.”[33] Following the end of the
war, angry crowds burned his books in public in major Norwegian cities and Hamsun was confined for
several months in a psychiatric hospital.

Hamsun was forced to undergo a psychiatric examination, which concluded that he had "permanently
impaired mental faculties," and on that basis the charges of treason were dropped. Instead, a civil liability
case was raised against him, and in 1948 he had to pay a ruinous sum to the Norwegian government of
325,000 kroner ($65,000 or £16,250 at that time) for his alleged membership in Nasjonal Samling and for
the moral support he gave to the Germans, but was cleared of any direct Nazi affiliation. Whether he was
a member of Nasjonal Samling or not and whether his mental abilities were impaired is a much debated
issue even today. Hamsun stated he was never a member of any political party. He wrote his last book
Paa giengrodde Stier (On Overgrown Paths) in 1949, a book many take as evidence of his functioning
mental capabilities. In it, he harshly criticizes the psychiatrists and the judges and, in his own words,
proves that he is not mentally ill.

The Danish author Thorkild Hansen investigated the trial and wrote the book The Hamsun Trial (1978),
which created a storm in Norway. Among other things Hansen stated: "If you want to meet idiots, go to
Norway," as he felt that such treatment of the old Nobel Prize-winning author was outrageous. In 1996,
Swedish filmmaker Jan Troell based the movie Hamsun on Hansen's book. In Hamsun, Swedish actor
Max von Sydow plays Knut Hamsun; his wife Marie is played by Danish actress Ghita Nørby.

Studies on Hamsun's writings

Hamsun's writings have been the subject of numerous books and journal articles. Some of these writings
explore the dialectic between Hamsun's literary works and his political and cultural leanings expressed in
his non-fiction.

Hamsun produced a voluminous correspondence during his lifetime. Norwegian scholar and Hamsun
expert Harald Næss spent four decades tracking these letters down in both the United States and Europe,
producing a collection of thousands of letters.[41] He would publish a selection in various volumes
between 1994 and 2000.

Bibliography

Non-fiction
1889 Lars Oftedal. Udkast (Draft) (11 articles, previously printed in Dagbladet)
1889 Fra det moderne Amerikas Aandsliv (The Cultural Life of Modern America) - lectures
and criticism
1903 I Æventyrland. Oplevet og drømt i Kaukasien (In Wonderland) - travelogue
 1918 Sproget i Fare (The Language in Danger) - essays

Poetry
1878 Et Gjensyn (A Reunion) - epic poem (Published as Knud Pedersen Hamsund)
1904 Det vilde Kor, poetry (The Wild Choir)

Plays
1895 Ved Rigets Port (At the Gate of the Kingdom)
1896 Livets Spil (The Game of Life)
1898 Aftenrøde. Slutningspil (Evening Red: Inference Games)
1902 Munken Vendt. Brigantine's Saga I
1903 Dronning Tamara (Queen Tamara)
1910 Livet i Vold (In the Grip of Life)

Short story collections

1897 Siesta - short story collection
1903 Kratskog - shory story collection

Stories
1877 Den Gaadefulde. En kjærlighedshistorie fra Nordland (The Gracious. A love story from
Nordland) (Published as Knud Pedersen)
1878 Bjørger (Published as Knud Pedersen Hamsund)

Series
The Wanderer Trilogy

1. 1906 Under Høststjærnen. En Vandrers Fortælling (Under the Autumn Star)

2. 1909 En Vandrer spiller med Sordin (A Wanderer Plays on Muted Strings)
3. 1912 Den sidste Glæde (Look Back on Happiness, AKA The Last Joy)
Benoni and Rosa

1. 1908 Benoni
2. 1908 Rosa: Af Student Parelius' Papirer (By Student Parelius' Papers) (Rosa)
Children of the Age and Segelfoss Town

1. 1913 Børn av Tiden (Children of the Age)

2. 1915 Segelfoss By 1 (2 Volumes) (Segelfoss Town)
The August Trilogy

1. 1927 Landstrykere (Wayfarers) (2 Volumes)

2. 1930 August (2 Volumes)
 3. 1933 Men Livet lever (The Road Leads On) (2 Volumes)

Other Novels
1890 Sult (Hunger)
1892 Mysterier (Mysteries)
1893 Redaktør Lynge (Editor Lynge)
1893 Ny Jord (Shallow Soil)
1894 Pan (Pan)
1898 Victoria. En kjærlighedshistorie (Victoria)
1904 Sværmere (Mothwise, 1921), (Dreamers)
1905 Stridende Liv. Skildringer fra Vesten og Østen (Fighting Life. Depictions from the West
and the East)
1917 Markens Grøde 2 Volumes (Growth of the Soil)
1920 Konerne ved Vandposten 2 Volumes (The Women at the Pump)
1923 Siste Kapitel (2 Volumes) (Chapter the Last)
1936 Ringen sluttet (The Ring is Closed)
1949 Paa gjengrodde Stier (On Overgrown Paths)
Nobel Prize-winning writer Isaac Bashevis Singer translated some of his works into Yiddish.

Film and TV adaptations

Prime among all of Hamsun's works adapted to film is Hunger, a 1966 film starring Per Oscarsson. It is
still considered one of the top film adaptations of any Hamsun works. Hamsun's works have been the
basis of 25 films and television mini-series adaptations, starting in 1916.[42]

The book Mysteries was the basis of a 1978 film of the same name (by the Dutch film company Sigma
Pictures),[43] directed by Paul de Lussanet, starring Sylvia Kristel, Rutger Hauer, Andrea Ferreol and Rita
Tushingham.

Landstrykere (Wayfarers) is a Norwegian film from 1990 directed by Ola Solum.

The Telegraphist is a Norwegian movie from 1993 directed by Erik Gustavson. It is based on the novel
Dreamers (Sværmere, also published in English as Mothwise).

Pan has been the basis of four films between 1922 and 1995. The latest adaptation, the Danish film of the
same name, was directed by Henning Carlsen, who also directed the Danish, Norwegian and Swedish
coproduction of the 1966 film Sult from Hamsun's novel of the same name.

Remodernist filmmaker Jesse Richards has announced he is in preparations to direct an adaptation of

Hamsun's short story The Call of Life.[44]

Cinematized biography
A biopic, Hamsun, was released in 1996, directed by Jan Troell. It stars Max von Sydow as Hamsun.

Reviews
Wark, Wesley K. (1980), review of Wayfarers, in Cencrastus No. 4, Winter 1980–81, pp48 &
49, ISSN 0264-0856 (https://www.worldcat.org/search?fq=x0:jrnl&q=n2:0264-0856)

References
1. Robert Ferguson (1987). Enigma: The Life of Knut Hamsun, New York, N.Y.: Farrar, Straus
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2. "The St. Petersburg Times - A complex legacy" (https://web.archive.org/web/201203290639
42/http://www.sptimes.ru/index.php?action_id=2&story_id=30228). Sptimes.ru. 6 November
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3. Isaac Bashevis Singer (1967). Introduction to Hunger
4. [1] (http://www.drdharchitects.co.uk/images/AR%20no1351%20-%20Sept%202009%20-%2
0Hamsun%20Centre.pdf) Archived (https://web.archive.org/web/20120119133731/http://ww
w.drdharchitects.co.uk/images/AR%20no1351%20-%20Sept%202009%20-%20Hamsun%2
0Centre.pdf) 19 January 2012 at the Wayback Machine
5. Knut Hamsun (1890). "Fra det ubevidste Sjæleliv", Samtiden, September 1890
6. The new encyclopædia Britannica: Volum 5
7. Hal May, Contemporary Authors, Volum 119, Gale, 1986
8. Woodard, Rob (10 September 2008). "The Nazi novelist you should read" (https://www.theg
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29 April 2021.
9. Hagen, Erik Bjerck (26 February 2020), "Knut Hamsun" (http://snl.no/Knut_Hamsun), Store
norske leksikon (in Norwegian Bokmål), retrieved 29 April 2021
10. Frank, Jeffrey (18 December 2005). "In from the Cold" (https://www.newyorker.com/magazin
e/2005/12/26/in-from-the-cold). The New Yorker.
11. "- Dommen mot Hamsun holder ikke juridisk" (https://www.vg.no/i/wE6zdd). www.vg.no (in
Norwegian Bokmål). 25 October 2004. Retrieved 29 April 2021.
12. Rottem, Øystein (25 February 2020), "Knut Hamsun" (http://nbl.snl.no/Knut_Hamsun), Norsk
biografisk leksikon (in Norwegian Bokmål), retrieved 29 April 2021
13. "Knut Hamsuns konst, diagnos och uteblivna fängelsestraff" (https://lakartidningen.se/aktuell
t/kultur-2/2012/08/knut-hamsuns-konst-diagnos-och-uteblivna-fangelsestraff). 7 August
2012.
14. "Knut Hamsun in Eide and Grimstad" (https://www.gbm.no/hamsunmuseet/en/knut-hamsun-
in-eide-and-grimstad).
15. Hamsun bio (http://nobelprize.org/nobel_prizes/literature/laureates/1920/hamsun-bio.html)
at Nobel Prize website.
16. "salten museum - Knut Hamsun's Childhood Home" (https://web.archive.org/web/20110610
012355/http://www.saltenmuseum.no/content/view/68/1/). Saltenmuseum.no. Archived from
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17. Contemporary Authors Online. Farmington Hills, Michigan: Gale. 2009. ISBN 978-0-7876-
3995-2.
18. Citation: [...] dobbeltromanen Benoni og Rosa fra 1908. I skikkelse av oppkomlingen
BenoniHartvigsen tegner Hamsun her for første gang et portrett av en allmuens mann i full
skikkelse, med ironisk distanse, men også med betydelig sympati.
19. "Knut Hamsun | Biography, Books and Facts" (https://www.famousauthors.org/knut-hamsu
n). www.famousauthors.org. Retrieved 8 April 2018.
20. Næss 2007, 1-608.
21. Terje I. Leiren (Fall 1999). "Catalysts to Disunion: Sigurd Ibsen and "Ringeren", 1898-1899"
(https://www.jstor.org/stable/40920149). Scandinavian Studies. 71 (3): 297–299.
JSTOR 40920149 (https://www.jstor.org/stable/40920149).
22. Hamsun, Knut (1940). Look Back on Happiness. Translated by Wiking, Paula. Coward-
McCann. p. 65. ISBN 978-0-598-68722-7.
23. "The Nobel Prize in Literature 1920" (http://nobelprize.org/nobel_prizes/literature/laureates/1
920/index.html). Nobelprize.org. Retrieved 27 June 2011.
24. The Goebbels Diaries, 1942–1943, translated, edited, and introduced by Louis P. Lochner,
1948, pp. 303–304. Goebbels also claimed that "from childhood on he [Hamsun] has keenly
disliked the English".
25. "Norway: Put Out Three Flags" (https://web.archive.org/web/20080408135249/http://www.ti
me.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,937860,00.html). TIME. 17 August 1959. Archived
from the original (http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,937860,00.html) on 8
April 2008. Retrieved 27 June 2011.
26. "Den 14. juni 1945 ble Hamsun "pågrepet" av politiet, men på grunn av høy alder innlagt på
Grimstad sykehus og siden overflyttet til et gamlehjem. Spørsmålet for påtalemyndighetene
var imidlertid hva man skulle gjøre med Hamsun. At Hamsun hadde vært en landsforræder
var ingen i tvil om" (https://web.archive.org/web/20120311125214/http://www.dagbladet.no/k
ronikker/960511-kro-1.html). Archived from the original (http://www.dagbladet.no/kronikker/9
60511-kro-1.html) on 11 March 2012.
27. (translation of title: Hamsun was not psychiatrically ill – Psychiatrist Terje Øiesvold at Salten
psychiatric center opines that Knut Hamsun did not have svekkede sjelsevner ("diminished"
+ "soul" + "abilities") "– Hamsun ikke psykisk syk – Psykiater Terje Øiesvold ved Salten
psykiatriske senter mener Knut Hamsun ikke hadde svekkede sjelsevner. Hamsun burde
vært stilt for retten for sin nazi-sympati under krigen." (http://www.nrk.no/nyheter/kultur/2160
875.html); quote: "I 1947 mottok Knut Hamsun endelig sin dom. I en rettsak i Grimstad ble
han idømt en bot som var så stor at han i realiteten var ruinert for alltid. "
28. "Knut Hamsun (1859-1952)" (http://www.daria.no/skole/?tekst=9427). Daria.no.
29. Knaplund, Paul. "Knut Hamsun: Triumph and Tragedy". Modern Age Vol. 9, Issue 2.
Chicago: Foundation for Foreign Affairs, 1965. 165–174.
30. "Knut Hamsuns Grab auf Nørholm" (https://web.archive.org/web/20160303223901/http://ha
msun.at/hamsun/spor_gri03_d.htm) [Knut Hamsun's grave on Nørholm]. hamsun.at (in
Norwegian). Archived from the original (http://hamsun.at/hamsun/spor_gri03_d.htm) on 3
March 2016. Retrieved 3 February 2011.
31. Charles Bukowski, WOMEN, New York: Ecco Books, 2002. p.67
32. "Gyldendal: Samlede verker 1–27" (http://www.gyldendal.no/new/default.asp?ID_Publisher=
6&ID_Category=520FC6D1FD4215FAC1256C4C005E7AE2&ID_Product=9788205375550)
(in Norwegian). Gyldendal.no. Retrieved 27 June 2011.
33. Gibbs, Walter (27 February 2009). "Norwegian Nobel Laureate, Once Shunned, Is Now
Celebrated" (https://www.nytimes.com/2009/02/28/books/28hams.html?scp=1&sq=Knut+Ha
msun+hitler+warrior+prophet&st=nyt). The New York Times. Retrieved 8 April 2008.
34. "1,001 ways to lose a Nobel Prize" (https://www.thelocal.no/20180929/1001-ways-to-lose-a-
nobel-prize/). 29 September 2018.
35. Reinhard H. Friederich. "Hamsun's and Kafka's Mysteries". Comparative Literature Vol. 28,
No. 1 (Winter, 1976), Pp. 34-50. Duke University Press.
36. Sjølyst-Jackson, Peter. Troubling legacies: migration, modernism and fascism in the case of
Knut Hamsun. Continuum International Publishing Group. p. 16.
37. Thorkild Hansen, Prosessen mod Hamsun, 1978
38. Morton Strand (7 December 2012). "Fikk Hitler og Aftenposten til å rase" (http://www.dagbla
det.no/2012/11/28/kultur/nobels_fredspris/utenriks/debatt/24578334/). Dagbladet.no.
Retrieved 20 May 2014.
39. Otto Dietrich, The Hitler I Knew, p. 8
40. "NorgesLexi - Norsk politisk dokumentasjon på internett!" (https://web.archive.org/web/2009
0822231637/http://www.norgeslexi.com/krigslex/h/h2.html). Archived from the original (http://
www.norgeslexi.com/krigslex/h/h2.html) on 22 August 2009. Retrieved 22 August 2009.
41. Johannessen, Oddbjørn (9 February 2017). "Harald S. Næss til minne" (https://www.fvn.no/k
ultur/lokalkulturen/i/xxLwl/harald-s-naess-til-minne). fvn.no (in Norwegian). Retrieved
25 April 2024.
42. "Knut Hamsun" (https://www.imdb.com/name/nm0359105/). IMDb.
43. "Sigma Pictures" (http://www.sigmapictures.com). www.sigmapictures.com.
44. "In Passing: Article on Remodernist Film in FilmInk Magazine" (https://web.archive.org/web/
20131225142201/http://www.inpassing.info/2011/06/article-on-remodernist-film-from.html).
Inpassing.info. Archived from the original (http://www.inpassing.info/2011/06/article-on-remo
dernist-film-from.html) on 25 December 2013. Retrieved 20 May 2014.

Further reading
Ferguson, Robert. 1987. Enigma: The Life of Knut Hamsun. Farrar, Straus and Giroux.
Hamsun, Knut. 1990. Selected Letters, Volume 1, 1879-98. Edited by Harald Næss and
James McFarlane. Norwich, England: Norvik Press.
Hamsun, Knut. 1998. Selected Letters, Volume 2, 1898-1952. Edited by Harald Næss and
James McFarlane. Norwich, England: Norvik Press.
Haugan, Jørgen. 2004. The Fall of the Sun God. Knut Hamsun - a Literary Biography Oslo:
Aschehoug.
Humpal, Martin. 1999. The Roots of Modernist Narrative: Knut Hamsun's Novels Hunger,
Mysteries and Pan. International Specialized Book Services.
Kolloen, Ingar Sletten. 2009. Knut Hamsun: Dreamer and Dissident. Yale University Press.
ISBN 978-0-300-12356-2
Larsen, Hanna Astrup. 1922. Knut Hamsun. Alfred A. Knopf.
Næss, Harald (2007), Nobel Prize Laureates in Literature, Part 2 (https://archive.org/details/
nobelprizelaurea0000unse), Farmington Hills, Michigan: Gale, ISBN 978-0-7876-8148-7
Nergaard, Siri. 2004. La costruzione di una cultura: la letteratura norvegese in traduzione
italiana. Guaraldi.
Shaer, Matthew. 2009. Tackling Knut Hamsun. (http://www.latimes.com/entertainment/news/
arts/la-ca-knut-hamsun25-2009oct25,0,5345383.story) Review of Kollen Sletten, Dreamer
and dissenter and Žagar, The dark side of literary brilliance. In Los Angeles Times, 25
October 2009.
D'Urance, Michel. 2007. Hamsun. Editions Pardès, Paris, 128 p.
Žagar, Monika. 2009. The dark side of literary brilliance. University of Washington Press.
 Larsen, Hanna Astrup (1922). Knut Hamsun (http://urn.nb.no/URN:NBN:no-nb_digibok_201
9020548008). Knopf.

External links

Biographical
National Library of Norway Commemoration Page (http://www.nb.no/hamsun2009/english)
Biography (http://www.odin.dep.no/odin/engelsk/norway/history/032005-990484/index-dok0
00-b-n-a.html), from the Norwegian Ministry of Foreign Affairs
Hamsun bibliography 1879–2009 : literature on Knut Hamsun (http://www.nb.no/bibliografi/h
amsun/?lang=en) (National Library of Norway)
Knut Hamsun (https://www.nobelprize.org/laureate/589) on Nobelprize.org
Kristofer Janson and Knut Hamsun (http://nabo.nb.no/trip?_b=EMITEKST&_f=www_sub&r=
853&delnr=5) at the National Library of Norway
Knut Hamsun's America (http://www.naha.stolaf.edu/pubs/nas/volume23/vol23_7.html)
Archived (https://web.archive.org/web/20150107205028/http://www.naha.stolaf.edu/pubs/na
s/volume23/vol23_7.html) 7 January 2015 at the Wayback Machine at the Norwegian-
American Historical Association
Knut Hamsun's Early Years in the Northwest (http://collections.mnhs.org/MNHistoryMagazin
e/articles/20/v20i04p397-412.pdf) Archived (https://web.archive.org/web/20121020083027/h
ttp://collections.mnhs.org/mnhistorymagazine/articles/20/v20i04p397-412.pdf) 20 October
2012 at the Wayback Machine in Minnesota History Magazine
Petri Liukkonen. "Knut Hamsun" (http://authorscalendar.info/khamsun.htm). Books and
Writers.
"Knut Hamsun: Dreamer and Dissenter" (http://www.tnr.com/book/review/art-and-ugliness-k
nut-hamsun), bio and review at The New Republic, September 2010
Knut Hamsun Online (http://www.hamsun.dk), fan-supported website

Works
Works by Knut Hamsun in eBook form (https://standardebooks.org/ebooks/knut-hamsun) at
Standard Ebooks
Hamsun bibliography 1879–2009 (http://www.nb.no/bibliografi/hamsun/?lang=en) published
by the National Library of Norway and the University library of Tromsø
Works by Knut Hamsun (https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/author/2376) at Project
Gutenberg
List of Works (http://noblib.internet-box.ch/NLEW.php?authorid=20)
Works by or about Knut Hamsun (https://archive.org/search.php?query=%28%28subject%3
A%22Hamsun%2C%20Knut%22%20OR%20subject%3A%22Knut%20Hamsun%22%20O
R%20creator%3A%22Hamsun%2C%20Knut%22%20OR%20creator%3A%22Knut%20Ham
sun%22%20OR%20creator%3A%22Hamsun%2C%20K%2E%22%20OR%20title%3A%22
Knut%20Hamsun%22%20OR%20description%3A%22Hamsun%2C%20Knut%22%20OR%
20description%3A%22Knut%20Hamsun%22%29%20OR%20%28%221859-1952%22%20A
ND%20Hamsun%29%29%20AND%20%28-mediatype:software%29) at the Internet Archive
Works by Knut Hamsun (https://librivox.org/author/1288) at LibriVox (public domain
audiobooks)
Det Vilde Kor 1904 (https://archive.org/details/detvildekor00jamsgoog) at the Internet
 Archive (Hamsun's only collection of verse)

Other
Wood, James, Addicted to Unpredictability, an essay. (https://www.lrb.co.uk/v20/n23/wood0
2_.html) Retrieved 8 October 2006.
Chelsea on the Edge: The Adventures of an American Theater, Davi Napoleon. Includes
discussion of Ice Age, a controversial production in which Hamson is the protagonist. Iowa
State University Press. ISBN 0-8138-1713-7, 1991.
Norwegian Nobel Laureate, Once Shunned, Is Now Celebrated (https://www.nytimes.com/2
009/02/28/books/28hams.html?_r=1&scp=1&sq=hamsun%20lackey&st=cse), New York
Times. 27 February 2009
Newspaper clippings about Knut Hamsun (http://purl.org/pressemappe20/folder/pe/007046)
in the 20th Century Press Archives of the ZBW

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