Knut Hamsun abroad

"This volume presents for the first time the fascinating story of Knut Hamsun's reception abroad. In a series of articles covering nine countries and two continents, new light is shed on a writer who less than a hundred years ago was celebrated as one of the world's leading literary figures. Having acquired considerable popularity in countries such as Germany and Russia from the beginning of his career in the 1890s, he was described by Isaac B. Singer as 'the father of the modern school of literature'. After being awarded the Nobel Prize in 1920 his international readership expanded considerably, reaching not just all of Europe - east as well as west - but also the entire American continent, from north to south. However, Hamsun's controversial political allegiances during the 1930s and 40s had dramatic repercussions, resulting in a story of literary reception whose complexity and variation from one country to another serves as an illustration of how literary history is profoundly interwoven with the larger currents of culture as well as politics"--P. [4] of cover.