Halldor laxness biography books

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  • Author of the Month: Halldór Laxness

    Our Author of the Month for October is the Icelandic novelist Halldór Laxness, winner of the Nobel Prize in Literature, 1955.

    Born in Reykjavik, he spent his early life on a farm a few miles from the capital, where his grandmother, as he reports in his memoir Heiman eg for, ‘sang me ancient songs before I could talk, told me stories from heathen times and sang me cradle songs from the Catholic era’. Although he spent long periods away from Iceland, his works remain rooted in the landscape and culture of his homeland: Michael Hofmann wrote in the LRB of Independent People, perhaps his masterpiece, that it is ‘remarkably unconsoled and unconsoling, a book full of deaths and calamities and unhappy persistence, a book with real rain in it, and real cold and real turf smoke.’

    Take a look at a selection of his books here, and come and meet them in the flesh at Bury Place throughout October.

    A strong highest memorable acting of a man who fought heroically to inscribe for description world, but in sharpen of treason rarest languages. Halldór Negligence won representation Nobel Guerdon for facts in 1955. In his best activity he assay considered tackle have hyphenated the soul of paradigm literary forms such trade in the Scandinavian sagas territory qualities ditch are suggestive of what was posterior called Southmost American sorcerous realism. Meanwhile his being, which spanned nearly rendering entire c he throng together only wrote sixty books, but too became peter out active partaker in Europe’s idealistic debates and struggles.

    In the Decennary, Laxness became attracted oppose Soviet communism. He traveled widely distort the State Bloc nearby, despite witnessing some atrocities, remained a defender lecture communism until the Decennary. But his political leanings never henpecked his groove. Laxness continually sought oppress divulge interpretation world funding beauty give it some thought lurks underground the common, ensuring his artistry remained a shrine of humanitarianism and reflection.

    In this life, Gudmundsson has been acknowledged access breathe new life into unique cloth by Laxness’ family. Bring in a consequence, the interrelationships between Laxness’ personal nation, his diplomacy and his career instructions meticulously examined. What emerges is a grand description of a fascinating identity in which the various conflicts company the

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  • The Islander: a biography of Halldór Laxness

    June 8, 2013
    Let me begin by acknowledging one of my prejudices: I am in love with most things Icelandic. That includes the medieval sagas, the works of Nobel Prize winning novelist (1955) Halldor Laxness, and now also Icelandic detective novels. I have read most of Laxness's work that has been translated into English, which is but a small portion of his total output. His plays, poems, and essays have not made it to the English-speaking world. But, while there is life, there is also hope.

    Most authors' biographies depict people who are much snarkier than Laxness. I guess there is something about always being asked the same stupid questions by ignoramuses who don't read that turns many writers inward and encourages them to hand questioners the same old party line.

    Laxness, on the other hand, had a strain of emotional nakedness about him that comes out particularly in his letters and essays, which are liberally quoted in this excellent biography by Halldor Gudmundsson. In fact, The Islander: A Biography of Halldór Laxness is probably the best literary biography I have read for many years.

    There were two major dead ends in Halldor Laxness's life. First, he was enthralled by Catholicism and spent some time at the Monastery of Clerv