Hamsun was born in Lom in the Gudbrandsdalen Valley in central Norway. The family moved after three years to the town of Hamarøy, some 100 miles north of the Arctic Circle. When they fell in debt to their relative, Hans Olsen, Hamsun was obliged to work for him, and had almost no formal education. In 1873 he ran away to Lom, but returned in the following year, and worked then at various jobs. His first work of fiction, DEN GAADEFULDE, appeared in 1877, when he was eigteen years old.

For the next year Hamsun taught school in Vesterålen, and published his second novel, BJØRGER (1878). In 1878 he moved to Christiania (now Oslo), living in poverty, and working for some time as a highway construction worker. Between 1882 and 1884 he wandered in the United States. After returning to Oslo Hamsun continued his literary career without much success. From 1886 to 1888 he lived again in the United States, where he worked as a streetcar attendant in Chigaco and a farmhand in North Dakota.

In 1890 Hamsun made his breakthrough with SULT (The Hunger), a story about a starving young writer. This virtually plotless novel became immediate sensation, and established Hamsun as a writer of note. Encouraged by this he criticized in his lectures such idols as Henrik Ibsen and Leo Tolstoy. In 1892 appeared MYSTERER, and two years later PAN, a panteistic story of an escape from urban civilization. In 1911 Hamsun moved to a farm, and after the publication of MARKENS GRØDE (The Growth of the Soil) in 1917, he purchased an estate, Nörholmen, in southern Norway, and divided his time between writing and farming.

Individualism and antipathy to modern Western culture lead Hamsun to support the Germans during their occupation of Norway in World War II. Although he never joined the Norwegian Nazi party, Hamsun wrote series of pro-Fascists articles, and met in 1943 Adolf Hitler and Josef Goebbels.

After the war he was arrested for some time, and transferred to a psychiatric clinic in Oslo, and then to an old-age home in Landvik. In 1947 he was placed on trial and fined for his opinions. Hamsun's account of his experiences, PÅ GJENGRODDE STIER (On Owergrown Paths) appeared in 1949, when he was ninety years old.

Hamsun died in Nörholmen on February 19, 1952. Later his reputation has been largely rehabilitated.

Hamsun wrote also travel books, essays, short stories and plays.

SEE ALSO: Per Olov Enquist, Halldór Laxness, Anton Tammsaare

Selected works:

• SULT, 1890 - The Hunger
• MYSTERIER, 1892 - Mysteries
• PAN, 1894
• VED RIKETS PORT, 1895 - At the Gate of the Kingdom
• LIVETS SPILL, 1896 - The Game of Life
• AFTENRØDE, 1898
• VICTORIA, 1898
• SVAERMERE, 1904
• UNDER HOSTSTJEAERNEN, 1906
• BØRN AN TIDEN, 1913 - Children of the Age
• SEGELFOSSBY, 1915 - Segelfoss Town
• MARKENS GRØDE, 1917 - Growth of the Soil
• KONERNE VED VANDPOSTEN, 1920 - Women at the Pump
• SISTE KAPITEL, 1923 - Chapter the Last
• LANDSTRYKERE, 1927 - Vagabonds
• AUGUST, 1930
• MEN LIVET LEVER, 1933 - The Road Leads On
• RINGEN SLUTTET, 1936 - The Ring is Closed - Rengas sulkeutuu
• PÅ GJENGRODDE STIER, 1949 - On Owergrown Paths