1) Knut Hamsun was a Norwegian author who was awarded the Nobel Prize in Literature in 1920 for his novel Growth of the Soil. 2) He is best known for his 1890 psychological novel Hunger, which described a young writer's descent into madness due to poverty. 3) Hamsun strongly advocated for Nazi Germany before and during World War 2, sending his Nobel medal to Joseph Goebbels and praising Hitler, which tarnished his reputation. However, he is still considered "Norway's soul" and efforts to prosecute him for treason were dropped due to mental decline.

1. KNUT HAMSUN<br />Knut Hamsun was born as Knud Pedersen in Lom, Norway in Gudbrandsdal. He was the fourth son (of seven children) of Peder Pedersen and Tora Olsdatter. When he was three, the family moved to Hamsund, Hamarøy in Nordland.They were poor and an uncle had invited them to farm his land for him. At age 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 would later state that his chronic nervous difficulties were due to the way his uncle treated him. He saw his uncle as quot;
the old colonial power, Englandquot;
, and himself as quot;
young Germany, asking for Lebensraumquot;
. In 1874, he finally escaped back to Lom, Norway. In the next five years, he would pick up any job just for the sake of the money. That included being a store clerk, peddler, shoemaker's apprentice, an assistant to a sheriff, and an elementary school teacher. 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, traveling and working at various jobs, and published his impressions under the title Fra det moderne Amerikas Aandsliv (1889).<br />Literary career<br />Working all those odd jobs paid off, and he published his first book about it: Den Gaadefulde: En Kjærlighedshistorie fra Nordland (The Enigmatic Man: A Love Story from Northern Norway, 1877). In his second novel Bjørger (1878), he would attempt 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 would later serve as the basis for Victoria: En Kærligheds Historie (1898; translated as Victoria: A Love Story, 1923).<br />WORK<br />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. A theme to which Hamsun often returned is that of the perpetual wanderer, an itinerant stranger (often the narrator) who shows up and insinuates himself into the life of small rural communities. This wanderer theme is central to the novels Mysteries, Pan, Under the Autumn Star, The Last Joy, Vagabonds, 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. 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 <br />novels Pan, A Wanderer Plays on Muted Strings, and the epic Growth of the Soil, the novel which is credited with securing him the Nobel Prize in literature in 1920. A fifteen-volume edition of his complete works was published in 1954. In 2009, to mark the 150-year 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. Fresh English translations of two of his major works, Growth of the Soil and Pan, were published in 1998.<br />PERSONAL LIFE<br />In 1898, Hamsun married Bergljot Göpfert (née Bech), who bore him the daughter Victoria, but the marriage ended in 1906. Hamsun then married Marie Andersen (b. 1881) in 1909 and she would be his companion until the end of his life. With Marie Hamsun he had four children, the sons Tore and Arild and the daughters Elinor and Cecilia.<br />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 being quot;
to earn their living as farmers, with his writing providing some additional incomequot;
.<br />However, after a few years, they decided to move south, to Larvik. In 1918, the couple bought Nørholm, an old and 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).<br /> DEATH<br />Knut Hamsun died on February 19, 1952, aged 92, in Grimstad, Norway. His ashes are buried in the garden of his home at Nørholm<br /> Knut Hamsun (August 4, 1859 – February 19, 1952) was a Norwegian author. He was praised by King Haakon VII of Norway as Norway's soul. In 1920, he was awarded the Nobel Prize in Literature for the epic, Growth of the Soil. He insisted that the main object of modern literature should be the intricacies of the human mind, that writers should describe the quot;
whisper of blood, and the pleading of bone marrowquot;
. Hamsun's literary debut, and perhaps the work for which he is most known, was the 1890 psychological novel, Hunger. Hamsun's reputation was severely tarnished by his vehement advocacy of Nazi Germany both before World War II and after Germany occupied Norway in April, 1940. He lionized leading Nazis and in 1943, in the middle of the war, he mailed his Nobel medal to Joseph Goebbels. Later, he visited Hitler and in a eulogy for the German leader published on May 7, 1945 — one day before surrender of the German occupation forces in Norway — Hamsun proclaimed, “He was a warrior, a warrior for mankind, and a prophet of the gospel of justice for all nations.” <br />After the war, due to a finding that Hamsun was in mental decline, efforts to prosecute him for treason were dropped. Nearly 60 years after his death, a recent biographer told a reporter, “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.” In 2009, the Queen of Norway presided over the gala launching of a year long program of commemorations of the 150th anniversary of the author's birth. On August 4, 2009 a Knut Hamsun Center (Hamsunsenteret) was opened in Presteid, Hamarøy island<br />