Nobel Prize Recipient. Knut Hamsun received recognition after receiving the 1920 Nobel Prize for Literature. According to the Nobel Prize committee, he received this coveted award for his monumental work "Growth of the Soil." With only three nominations from two persons, he received the award. His early novels "Hunger" in 1890, "Mysteries" in 1892, and "Pan" in 1894 deal with characters who have been rejected by society, and in many ways, they foreshadow the sense of alienation expressed in the writings of Franz Kafka. Hamsun later adapted a broader, sociological approach. In "The Growth of the Soil" in 1917 he argued that modern life was hopelessly corrupt and that the salvation of men lay in a return to nature. In all he wrote 40 novels, six plays, a collection of poetry, essays and an autobiography, "On Overgrown Paths" in 1949. Many of his pieces have been translated into English. Hamsun was born Knud Pedersen in Lom, Norway. He had little formal education and entered adulthood as a vagabond, wandering from one menial job to another. He visited the United States twice and recorded his impressions, mostly unfavorable, in the book "The Intellectual Life of Modern America" in 1889. The distrust of civilization that marks Hamsun's work also shaped his political views. He believed that democracy resulted in decadence and favored a strong central government that would place controls on society. His authoritarian leanings led him to support the German occupation of Norway during World War II. He wrote articles praising Adolf Hitler and in 1943, after meeting Hitler and his Propaganda Minister Joseph Goebbels, he sent Goebbels his Nobel Prize medal as a token of his esteem. After the war, Hamsun was forcibly confined to a mental institution and his wife and sons were imprisoned. He was found guilty of Nazi collaboration in 1947 and made to pay a heavy fine; only his age of 88 and international stature spared him a harsher sentence. Publication of his "Complete Works" was withheld until 1955, after his death. The film "Hamsun" in 1996, with actor Max von Sydow playing the author, focused on this still controversial part of his life.