how to gift a Nobel Prize: Knut Hamsun

His later works—in particular his “Nordland novels”—were influenced by the Norwegian new realism, portraying everyday life in rural Norway and often employing local dialect, irony, and humour.[8] Hamsun published only one poetry collection, The Wild Choir, which has been set to music by several composers.

Hamsun held strong Anglophobic views, and openly supported Adolf Hitler and Nazi Germany, travelling to meet Hitler during the German occupation of Norway.[9][10][11] Due to his professed support for the occupation of Norway and the Quisling regime, he was charged with treason after the war. Due to alleged psychological problems and issues relating to old age, he was not convicted, but in 1948 he was heavily fined.[12][13][14] Hamsun’s last book, On Overgrown Paths, authored in semi-imprisonment in Landvik, concerned his postwar treatment and his rebuttal to accusations of mental ineptness.[15][14]