(born Aug. 4, 1859, Lom, Nor.—died Feb. 19, 1952, near Grimstad) Norwegian novelist, dramatist, and poet. Of peasant origin, he had almost no formal education.
His semiautobiographical first novel, Hunger (1890), about a starving young writer, revealed his impulsive, lyrical style. It was followed by such works as Mysteries (1892), Pan (1894), and Victoria (1898), with which he established himself as a leader of the Neoromantic revolt against social realism. Growth of the Soil (1917) and his many other novels express a message of fierce individualism and back-to-nature philosophy. He won the Nobel Prize for Literature in 1920. His antipathy to modern Western culture led to his support of Nazi Germany during its wartime occupation of Norway; he was imprisoned and tried after the war, and his reputation was seriously damaged.
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