Halldór Laxness

Gillian Fenwick (University of Toronto)
Download PDF Add to Bookshelf Tweet Report an Error

Halldór Laxness, sometimes called Halldór Kiljan Laxness, was born Halldór Guðjónsson on 23 April 1902 in Reykjavík, Iceland. He died on 8 February 1998 in nearby Reykjalundur. He is Iceland’s most famous modern writer and won the Nobel Prize in Literature in 1955. He published more than 60 books, including novels, plays, stories, essays and several volumes of memoirs. He usually wrote in Icelandic, though many of his novels are translated. The most famous of them is Independent People (1934-35). Half a dozen of his best-known books remain in print in English. He was an ardent promoter of Icelandic culture, though this did not mean that he was opposed to an outward-looking modern perspective. He was often torn between his …

4260 words

Citation: Fenwick, Gillian. "Halldór Laxness". The Literary Encyclopedia. First published 14 April 2011 [https://staging.litencyc.com/php/speople.php?rec=true&UID=12029, accessed 07 October 2024.]

12029 Halldór Laxness 1 Historical context notes are intended to give basic and preliminary information on a topic. In some cases they will be expanded into longer entries as the Literary Encyclopedia evolves.

Save this article

If you need to create a new bookshelf to save this article in, please make sure that you are logged in, then go to your 'Account' here

Leave Feedback

The Literary Encyclopedia is a living community of scholars. We welcome comments which will help us improve.