1920 Nobel Prize in Literature


The 1920 Nobel Prize in Literature was awarded to the Norwegian author Knut Hamsun "for his monumental work, Growth of the Soil." He was the second Norwegian Nobel laureate in literature after Bjørnstjerne Bjørnson won in 1903.

Laureate

The novel Sult, widely regarded as the first modern novel in Norwegian literature, marked Knut Hamsun's debut as a writer. In his writings, he basically highlights the simple life lived in harmony with nature and shows an aversion to civilization. He admired Germany, which made him sympathetic to the Nazi invasion of Norway in 1940. After the World War II, he was ordered to forfeit his possessions and placed under psychiatric monitoring for a period. He pioneered psychological literature with techniques of stream of consciousness and interior monologue influencing authors such as Kafka, Mann, Miller and Hesse. Among his famous oeuvres include Mysterier, Pan, and Victoria, and published one poetry collection, Det vilde Kor.

''Growth of the Soil''

The Nobel Prize was given to Hamsun for his 1917 novel Markens Grøde, which is regarded as an epic ode to labor and the interdependence of man and nature. The protagonists in the novel are portrayed as actual individuals, but Hamsun gives the settlers' attempts to develop the wilderness heroic aspects in the manner of the classical poet Hesiod. Employing stream of consciousness, the novel exemplified his aversion to modernity and inclination towards primitivism and the agrarian lifestyle.

Deliberations

Nominations

Hamsun only received 3 nominations in total for consecutive two years. He first received his nomination in 1918 from Norwegian art historian Harry Fett, but no award was that year due to the deliberations being disrupted by World War I. He then received two nominations in 1920 once again from Harry Fett and Academy member Erik Axel Karlfeldt.
In total, the Nobel Committee earned 27 nominations for authors like Thomas Hardy, Grazia Deledda, Georg Brandes, John Galsworthy, Władysław Reymont, Ebenezer Howard and Juhani Aho. Only one author was newly recommended namely the American historian Wilbur Cortez Abbott and Italian writer Grazia Deledda was the only female nominee.
The authors Paul Adam, Alice E. Bartlett, Alberto Blest Gana, Rhoda Broughton, Giovanni Capurro, Bithia Mary Croker, Richard Dehmel, Paul Ferrier, Mary Evelyn Hitchcock, Matthías Jochumsson, Amanda Kerfstedt, Haralamb Lecca, Alexandru Macedonski, Alexius Meinong, Julia A. Moore, Panas Myrny, Manuel Pérez y Curis, Eleanor H. Porter, Shloyme Zanvl Rappoport, Adolphe-Basile Routhier, Olive Schreiner, Ömer Seyfettin, Helen Ekin Starrett, Maria Antonietta Torriani, Mary Augusta Ward, Max Weber and Wilhelm Wundt died in 1920 died without having been nominated for the prize.
No.NomineeCountryGenreNominator
1Wilbur Cortez Abbott United States|1912

Prize decision

The Nobel committee of the Swedish Academy had strong doubts to award Knut Hamsun. The committee did not find that Hamsun's often decadent and cynical work represented "what is most excellent in an ideal direction", as was outlined in Alfred Nobel's will. Following the publication of his 1917 novel Growth of the Soil and a nomination for Hamsun in 1920 the committee nevertheless found Hamsun worthy of the prize, but struggled to come to a decision. One dissenting member expressed the view that Hamsun lacked "the culture, the considered world-view and humanity" that ought to suit a worthy recipient of the prize, and instead supported a prize to Georg Brandes. To suit the "ideal direction", the committee's solution was ultimately to award Hamsun for the single work Growth of the Soil, rather than for his entire oeuvre.
Other contenders for the prize in 1920 included Thomas Hardy, Arne Garborg and John Galsworthy. The Swiss poet Carl Spitteler was voted by the Academy to be awarded the prize for the previous year.