WRITER

Knut Hamsun

1859 - 1952

Knut Hamsun

Knut Hamsun (4 August 1859 – 19 February 1952) was a Norwegian writer who was awarded the Nobel Prize in Literature in 1920. Hamsun's work spans more than 70 years and shows variation with regard to consciousness, subject, perspective and environment. Read more on Wikipedia

Since 2007, the English Wikipedia page of Knut Hamsun has received more than 1,010,233 page views. His biography is available in 102 different languages on Wikipedia (up from 99 in 2019). Knut Hamsun is the 86th most popular writer (up from 93rd in 2019), the 8th most popular biography from Norway (down from 7th in 2019) and the 2nd most popular Norwegian Writer.

Knut Hamsun is most famous for his novel Hunger, which tells the story of a starving writer in 19th century Christiania.

Memorability Metrics

1.0M
Page Views (PV)
77.94
Historical Popularity Index (HPI)
102
Languages Editions (L)
16.25
Effective Languages (L*)
3.36
Coefficient of Variation (CV)

Notable Works

Sult

Fiction / Psychological, Fiction / Classics, Literary Collections / European / Scandinavian

A modernist masterpiece: the Nobel Prize winner’s first and most important novel A Penguin Classic First published in Norway in 1890, Hunger probes the depths of consciousness with frightening and gripping power. Contemptuous of novels of his time and what he saw as their stereotypical plots and empty characters, Knut Hamsun embarked on “an attempt to describe the strange, peculiar life of the mind, the mysteries of the nerves in a starving body.” Like the works of Dostoyevsky, it marks an extraordinary break with Western literary and humanistic traditions.For more than seventy years, Penguin has been the leading publisher of classic literature in the English-speaking world. With more than 1,800 titles, Penguin Classics represents a global bookshelf of the best works throughout history and across genres and disciplines. Readers trust the series to provide authoritative texts enhanced by introductions and notes by distinguished scholars and contemporary authors, as well as up-to-date translations by award-winning translators.

18904 / 5

Pan

1900

On over-grown paths

1967

Victoria

1902

Hoe het groeide

Fiction

The epic novel of man and nature that won its author the Nobel Prize in Literature When it was first published in 1917, Growth of the Soil was immediately recognized as a masterpiece. In the story of Isak, who leaves his village to clear a homestead and raise a family amid the untilled tracts of the Norwegian backcountry, Knut Hamsun evokes the elemental bond between humans and the land. Newly translated by the distinguished Hamsun scholar Sverre Lyngstad, Growth of the Soil is a work of preternatural calm, stern beauty, and biblical power-and the crowning achievement of one of the greatest writers of the twentieth century. 'Growth of the Soil was a worldwide sensation . . . and almost from the day of publication there were rumors that Hamsun would win the Nobel Prize . . . Singer admitted to being 'hypnotized' by him; Hesse called him his favorite writer; Hemingway recommended his novels to Scott Fitzgerald; Gide compared him to Dostoyevsky, but believed Hamsun was 'perhaps even more subtle.' The list of those who loved his sly, anarchic voice is long.' - The New Yorker WINNER OF THE NOBEL PRIZE IN LITERATURE Translated with Notes by SVERRE LYNGSTAD

19174 / 5

Rosa

Fiction

A new translation of a Norwegian classic in which two men vie for the love of a woman. One suitor is a poor painter, the other a rich businessman. By a winner of the Nobel Prize for Literature.

1926

Page views of Knut Hamsuns by language

Over the past year Knut Hamsun has had the most page views in the English wikipedia edition with 119,115 views, followed by Russian (56,557), and German (48,534). In terms of yearly growth of page views the top 3 wikpedia editions are Hakka (205.77%), Kazakh (122.34%), and Bashkir (109.92%)