Hamsun had little formal education, but was an avid reader. Forced to work to pay off his father's debts, he ran away in 1873 to Lom where he worked as a shop apprentice. He then spent some time traveling around Norway as a peddler before writing his first work of fiction, Den Gaadefulde, which appeared in 1877. In 1878, he published Bjorger, but this was unsuccessful and he moved to Christiana (Oslo) where he worked as a construction worker. He traveled to America and spent the years 1882 to 1884 working at odd jobs while he moved from place to place. He returned to Norway briefly in 1885, but soon returned to America where he again took various jobs over the next two years. In 1889, he published The Spiritual Life of Modern America and in 1890 his first real success came with Hunger which became an immediate sensation. He returned to Europe and spent three years in France. He also spent time in Finland where he met Aho and Sibelius. He finally settled in Copenhagen. In 1917, he returned to Norway and published The Growth of the Soil, which won him the Nobel Prize in Literature for 1920. He suffered a mental breakdown in the late 1920's and underwent prolonged therapy. In 1930, he published the first of his "Vagabond" trilogy, Landstykare, which was reasonably successful. During the Nazi occupation of Norway, Hamsun supported the Germans having felt sympathy for their defeat in the First World War. Although he never joined the Norwegian Nazi party, he wrote a number of pro-Fascist articles. He met Hitler and Goebbels in 1943 and complained about the treatment of Jews in Norway. After the war, he was held in custody and eventually transferred to a psychiatric clinic in Oslo. In 1947, he was tried and fined for his wartime opinions. In 1949, he published On Overgrown Paths, which explained his views and trial experiences and which became an instant best-seller. His other works include Lars Oftedal (1889), Mysteries (1892), The Game of Life (1896), Dreams (1904), In the Grip of Life (1910), Children of the Age (1913), August (1930), The Road Leads On (1933) and The Ring is Closed (1936). |
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