Knut Hamsun was born in Vågå in Gudbrandsdalen in 1859. In 1962 his family moved to Hamarøy in Nordland, where his father worked the small Hamsund farm.
At the age of 14, Hamsun broke away from Hamarøy and lived a wandering, unsettled life until 1911. He soon tried his hand
at writing. When he was twenty, he walked into the Gyldendal publishing company in Copenhagen with the
manuscript for
his novel, Frida. It was immediately refused and a disappointed Hamsun left for Kristiania. Here his life was
characterised by hunger and extreme poverty and this, combined with later visits to Kristiania, created
the basis for
his breakthrough novel, Hunger (1890). This was followed in 1894 by another novel, Pan, which was read at the
time as a neo-romantic gospel of nature, and with this came Hamsun's definitive breakthrough.
In 1898, he married Bergljot Goepfert and started writing Victoria, one of the strongest and most beautiful love stories
in
Norwegian literature. In time, he decides he wants to settle down, be a farmer and return to North Norway. He realises this
wish in 1911. His marriage to Bergljot had been dissolved in 1908 and, with his new, 22-year younger
wife, Marie, he
moves to Skogheim farm on Hamarøy. They return south again in 1917 and make their home at Nørholm near Grimstad,
where Hamsun stays for the rest of his life. In his rural novel Growth of the Soil (1917), Hamsun describes the satisfaction
of living and working in harmony with nature. For this tribute to the farmer, written in Old Testament style, Hamsun received
the Nobel Prize for Literature in 1920.
During the German occupation of Norway, Hamsun wrote a number of newspaper articles supporting the occupying forces
and Quisling.
In 1943, he visited Joseph Goebbels, the German propaganda minister, and later he met Hitler. After the liberation of Norway
in 1945, a court-appointed psychiatrist concluded that Hamsun had permanently impaired mental faculties. The authorities brought
a civil action against him and in 1948 he was ordered to pay NOK 425,000 to the Norwegian State for his close connection with
the Norwegian Nazi Party.
In 1949, he published a book entitled On Overgrown Paths. This is an apologia, but it also provides insight into his
life
as an old man. Hamsun's actions during the war were a great disappointment to the Norwegian people, but it is generally agreed
that he must be regarded as one of Norway's greatest authors. Knut Hamsun died in 1952 aged 92.
Number: NK 1728
Subject: Portrait
Design/engraving: Sverre Morken
Value: NOK 25.00
Issue: 1.5 million stamps
No. per sheet: 50 stamps
Printing: Recess/offset by Royal Joh. Enschedé, Netherlands
Sales prices:
First day cover: NOK 29.00
Presentation pack: NOK 30.00
Collector's set: NOK 64.00
Collector's sheet:
NOK 45.00