Knut Hamsun, circa 1890
1,910 words
Knut Hamsun’s 1917 classic Growth of the Soil seems to defy the fundamental conflicts found in most fiction. It is a mystifying novel. One can pigeonhole it as modern with its use of stream of consciousness, flashbacks, and other literary techniques. It’s also considered part of a literary movement called Norwegian New Realism, which was highly influential beyond Norway in the first half of the Twentieth Century. Most interesting for dissidents, the novel reflects the near mystical connection Man has with the soil, consecrated through hard work and family. (more…)
427 words
Knut Hamsun was born Knut Pedersen in Lom, Norway on August 4, 1859. He died in Grimstad, Norway, on February 19, 1952. The author of more than twenty novels, plus poems, short stories, plays, and essays, Hamsun was one of the twentieth century’s most influential writers. His rejection of both Romanticism and naturalism, his emphasis on outsiders and rebels, and his exploration of inner and sometimes extreme states of consciousness, made him a pioneer of literary modernism. (more…)
1,058 words
Oh, what strange freaks one’s thoughts are guilty of when one is starving.
— Knut Hamsun, Hunger
Back in my misspent youth, I took a seminar on creative writing. One of the instructors gave the class a piece of advice which I never heeded. She said that if you want to be good enough at writing to make a living at it, don’t be good at anything else. (more…)
421 words
Knut Hamsun was born Knut Pedersen in Lom, Norway on August 4, 1859. He died in Grimstad, Norway, on February 19, 1952. The author of more than twenty novels, plus poems, short stories, plays, and essays, Hamsun was one of the twentieth century’s most influential writers. His rejection of both Romanticism and naturalism, his emphasis on outsiders and rebels, and his exploration of inner and sometimes extreme states of consciousness, made him a pioneer of literary modernism. (more…)
Knut Hamsun in 1930
1,673 words
Translated by Haldora Flank
Translator’s Preface
This letter by the famous Norwegian author and man of the Right Knut Hamsun appeared in the magazine Ragnarok in March 1939. Ragnarok, which Hamsun himself read, was a Norwegian National Socialist monthly that was published between 1934 and 1945. The letter itself, however, had originally been written in 1916 as a reply to Eugéne Olaussen (1887-1962). At the time, Olaussen was the Editor-in-Chief of Klassekampen (Class Struggle), a Norwegian Leftist newspaper that was published from 1909 until 1940, and which at the time was being published by the Norwegian Social Democratic Youth League, the youth wing of the Norwegian Labor Party. Olaussen had requested a contribution from Hamsun, and this letter was his answer. (more…)
478 words
Knut Hamsun (1859-1952) is considered to be Norway’s greatest novelist. Along with Ibsen and Strindberg, Hamsun brought Scandinavia to the forefront of literary modernism. Eschewing realism for penetrating psychological insights, Hamsun’s subjective style proved to be extremely influential for a variety of writers ranging from Thomas Mann to Ernest Hemingway and even to Isaac Bashevis Singer. (more…)
383 words
Knut Hamsun was born Knut Pedersen in Lom Norway on August 4, 1859. He died in Grimstad, Norway, on February 19, 1952. The author of more than 20 novels, plus poems, short stories, plays, and essays, Hamsun was one of the 20th century’s most influential writers. His rejection of both Romanticism and naturalism, his emphasis on outsiders and rebels, and his exploration of inner and sometimes extreme states of consciousness, made him a pioneer of literary modernism. He received the Nobel Prize for literature in 1920. (more…)
383 words
Knut Hamsun was born Knut Pedersen in Lom Norway on August 4, 1859. He died in Grimstad, Norway, on February 19, 1952. The author of more than 20 novels, plus poems, short stories, plays, and essays, Hamsun was one of the 20th century’s most influential writers. (more…)
383 words
Knut Hamsun was born Knut Pedersen in Lom Norway on August 4, 1859. He died in Grimstad, Norway, on February 19, 1952. The author of more than 20 novels, plus poems, short stories, plays, and essays, Hamsun was one of the 20th century’s most influential writers. (more…)
383 words
Knut Hamsun was born Knut Pedersen in Lom Norway on August 4, 1859. He died in Grimstad, Norway, on February 19, 1952. The author of more than 20 novels, plus poems, short stories, plays, and essays, Hamsun was one of the 20th century’s most influential writers. His rejection of both Romanticism and naturalism, his emphasis on outsiders and rebels, and his exploration of inner and sometimes extreme states of consciousness, made him a pioneer of literary modernism. He received the Nobel Prize for literature in 1920. (more…)
383 words
Knut Hamsun was born Knut Pederson in Lom Norway on August 4, 1859. He died in Grimstad, Norway, on February 19, 1952. (more…)
Ludwig Fahrenkrog, “The Holy Fire”
1,311 words
Part 2 of 2
Translated by Greg Johnson
The Paganism of Hamsun and Lawrence
If Hamsun and Lawrence carry out their desire to return to a natural ontology by rejecting rationalist intellectualism, this also implies an in-depth contestation of the Christian message. (more…)
Knut Hamsun
2,378 words
Part 1 of 2
Translated by Greg Johnson
The Hungarian philologist Akos Doma, educated in Germany and the United States, has published a work of literary interpretation comparing the works of Knut Hamsun and D. H. Lawrence: (more…)
1,012 words
English version here
Knut Hamsun é um mistério. Enquanto quase todos os seus trabalhos foram traduzidos para o Francês; enquanto houve algumas adaptações para o cinema e televisão; enquanto – diferentemente de tantos outros –, seus livros não são “nem antiquados, nem obsoletos” (Hubert Nyssen), ele ainda é ignorado pelo público francês. (more…)
Knut Hamsun, circa 1890
376 words
Knut Hamsun was born Knut Pederson in Lom Norway on August 4, 1859. He died in Grimstad, Norway, on February 19, 1952. The author of more than 20 novels, plus poems, short stories, plays, and essays, Hamsun was one of the 20th century’s most influential writers. His rejection of both Romanticism and naturalism, his emphasis on outsiders and rebels, and his exploration of inner and sometimes extreme states of consciousness, made him a pioneer of literary modernism. He received the Nobel Prize for literature in 1920. (more…)
1,000 words
Translated by Greg Johnson
Portuguese translation here
Knut Hamsun is a mystery. While almost all his works have been translated into French, while there have been quite a few movie and television adaptations, while—unlike so many others—his books are “neither out-of-date nor obsolete” (Hubert Nyssen), he is still ignored by the French public. (more…)
Knut Hamsun, 1859–1952
6,468 words
Editor’s Note:
This much-expanded version of a previously-published essay on Knut Hamsun is chapter 6 of Kerry Bolton’s Artists of the Right: Resisting Decadence, forthcoming from Counter-Currents.
Knut Hamsun, 1859–1952, has had a decisive impact on the course of twentieth century literature, both in Europe and America, yet was for decades little discussed let alone honored even in his native Norway. (more…)
Marianne Hamsun, "Portrait of Knut Hamsun," date unknown
2,641 words
After fifty years of being confined to the Orwellian memory hole created by the Jews as part of their European “denazification” process, the work of the Norwegian author Knut Hamsun — who died in 1952 — is reemerging to take its place among the greatest European literature of the twentieth century. All of his major novels have undergone English-language reprints during the last two years, and even in his native Norway, where his post-1945 ostracism has been most severe, he is finally receiving a long-overdue recognition. (more…)
2,161 words
Editor’s Note:
The following sketch of Knut Hamsun’s life and work should be supplemented by Mark Deavin’s discussion here of Hamsun’s greatest book, Growth of The Soil, for which he won the Nobel prize for literature. See also Robert Ferguson’s biography Enigma: The Life of Knut Hamsun, 1859–1952.
(more…)
367 words
In 1916 Hamsun began work on what became his greatest and most idealistic novel, Growth of the Soil
, which won the Nobel Prize for Literature in 1921. It painted Hamsun’s ideal of a solid, farm-based culture, where human values, instead of being fixed upon transitory artificialities which modern society had deemed fashionable, would be based upon the fixed wheel of the seasons in the safekeeping of an inviolable eternity where man and Nature existed in harmony: (more…)
Knut Hamsun, 1859–1952
876 words
Translated by Greg Johnson
Editor’s Note:
The following article is from Euro-Synergies, July 12, 2009. It is my translation of Robert Steuckers’ translation of a June 24, 2009 item from the Flemish ’t Pallierterke website. I have altered the title and section headings.
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