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Halldór Kiljan Laxness was an Icelandic writer and winner of the 1955 Nobel Prize in Literature. He wrote novels, poetry, newspaper articles, essays, plays, travelogues and short stories. Writers who influenced Laxness include August Strindberg, Sigmund Freud, Knut Hamsun, Sinclair Lewis, Upton Sinclair, Bertolt Brecht, and Ernest Hemingway.
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culture · Icelandic author (1902–1998) · linguist · novelist · translator · playwright · poet · philosopher · writer · also Halldór Laxness, Halldór Kiljan Laxness, Halldor Laxness, Halldor Kiljan Laxness, Laxness
Born 23 April 1902 · Died 8 February 1998 · Q80321
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Awarded the Nobel Prize in Literature — for his vivid epic power which has renewed the great narrative art of Iceland.
85%Nobel PrizeSource
“That's rather more than I'm prepared to believe. Some more of that damned modern rubbish, I suppose. And no one is going to tell me that that fellow you mentioned just now could have ever stood up to Orvar-Oddur, and him fully twelve Danish ells in height.”
Moviefone: Halldór Laxness Halldórsson
Moviefone: Halldór Laxness: "I shall or I die"
The Nation: The Faith of Halldór Laxness
The New Yorker: The Rediscovery of Halldór Laxness
MutualArt.com: Halldór Laxness
Locus Online: McEwan Wins Halldór Laxness Prize
A new English-language translation of Gerpla was published as Wayward Heroes
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The Icelandic National Theatre premiered a play by Ólafur Haukur Símonarson, Halldór í Hollywood (Halldór in Hollywood), about Laxness's time in the United States in the 1920s
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Halldór Guðmundsson's book The Islander: A Biography of Halldór Laxness won the Icelandic Literary Prize for best work of nonfiction in 2004.
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Her adaptation of Laxness's story Úngfrúin góða og Húsið (The Honour of the House) was submitted for consideration for the Academy Award for Best Foreign Film
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Died 1998-02-08.
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Laxness published an influential ecological essay, Hernaðurinn gegn landinu (The War Against the Land)
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Laxness published the "visionary novel" Kristnihald undir Jökli (Under the Glacier / Christianity at the Glacier)
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Halldór and his wife went on a world tour, stopping in New York City, Washington, DC, Chicago, Madison, Salt Lake City, San Francisco, Peking (Beijing), Bombay (Mumbai), Cairo, and Rome
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Awarded the Nobel Prize in Literature — for his vivid epic power which has renewed the great narrative art of Iceland.
Awarded Nobel Prize in Literature (1955).
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Laxness was awarded the Nobel Prize in Literature "for his vivid epic power, which has renewed the great narrative art of Iceland"
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Laxness published Gerpla (The Happy Warriors, Wayward Heroes) a novel based on the Fóstbræðra saga
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The English translation of Independent People was published as a Book of the Month Club selection in the U
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And moved into their home, Gljúfrasteinn, in Mosfellsbær later that year
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Halldór and his second wife, Auður Sveinsdóttir, moved into Gljúfrasteinn, a new house built in the countryside near Mosfellsbær, where they started a family
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Laxness translated Hemingway's A Farewell to Arms into Icelandic, which caused controversy because of his use of neologisms
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Met Auður Sveinsdóttir (30 June 1918 – 29 October 2012) at Laugavatn
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And wrote approvingly of the Soviet system and culture
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Laxness wrote the poem Maístjarnan (The May Star), which was set to music by Jón Ásgeirsson and became a socialist anthem
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A reviewer at the Evening Standard wrote: "No beauty is allowed to exist as ornamentation in its own right in these pages; but the work is replete from cover to cover with the beauty of its perfection
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A collection of short stories, as well as other essays, notably Dagleið á fjöllum (A Day's Journey in the Mountains) in 1937
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Married Ingibjörg Einarsdóttir (3 May 1908 – 22 January 1994), who gave birth to his son Einar on 9 August 1931
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Laxness published an article critical of the U
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Published Vefarinn mikli frá Kasmír, a novel about a young man's conflicts with religion and identity in his quest to become "the most perfect person in the world"
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Was baptized and confirmed in the Catholic Church, adopting the surname Laxness after the homestead on which he was raised and adding the name Kiljan (the Icelandic name of Irish martyr Saint Killian); Laxness practic
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Halldór moved into and considered joining the Abbaye Saint-Maurice et Saint-Maur in Clervaux, Luxembourg, where the monks followed the rules of Saint Benedict of Nursia
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In 1922, Laxness met Málfríður Jónsdóttir (29 August 1896 – 7 November 2003), who gave birth to his first daughter, María, on 10 April 1923.
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Laxness met Málfríður Jónsdóttir (29 August 1896 – 7 November 2003), who gave birth to his first daughter, María, on 10 April 1923
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In Morgunblaðið and in the children's periodical Æskan
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Born 1902-04-23.
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“Pray God for guidance, man. It's thirty-odd years since I sold the last copy of Orvar-Odds saga. The country stands on an entirely different cultural footing nowadays. I can recommend the story of King Solomon's Mines there, all about the hero of Umslopogaas, in his own way a great man, and in my opinion no whit inferior to Orvar-Oddur.”
Pray God for guidance, man. It's thirty-odd years since I sold the last copy of Orvar-Odds saga. The country stands on an entirely different cultural footing nowadays. I can recommend the story of King Solomon's Mines there, all about the hero of Umslopogaas, in his own way a great man, and in my opinion no whit inferior to Orvar-Oddur.
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