Halldór Laxness

Halldór Kiljan Laxness [ˈhaltour ˈcʰɪljan ˈlaxsnɛs]  was a twentieth-century Icelandic writer. Throughout his career Laxness wrote poetry, newspaper articles, plays, travelogues, short stories, and novels. Major influences on his writings include August Strindberg, Sigmund Freud, Sinclair Lewis, Upton Sinclair, Bertolt Brecht and Ernest Hemingway. He is the only Icelander to have won a Nobel Prize . Laxness was born under the name Halldór Guðjónsson in Reykjavik in 1902, the son of Guðjón Helgason and Sigríður... Halldórsdóttir. After spending his early years in Reykjavik, he moved with his family in 1905 to Laxnes near Mosfellsbær, a more rural area just north of the capital. He soon started to read books and write stories. At the age of 14 his first article was published in the newspaper Morgunblaðið under the name "H.G." His first book, the novel Barn náttúrunnar , was published in 1919. At the time of its publication he had already begun his travels on the European continent. In 1922, Laxness joined the Abbaye St.
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