HAMSUN, Knut. Growth of the Soil. London: Gyldendal. [1920.]
8vo. Original green cloth, lettered in black to front cover and spine; pp. [6], 406, title-page printed in red and black; light offsetting to endpapers; minimal rubbing to spine ends; ink stamp ‘Da … ing’ partly legible to rear free endpaper; a very good copy.
First edition in English of one of Knut Hamsun’s most celebrated works, published in the year he was awarded the Nobel Prize in Literature.
First published in Norwegian in 1917, Growth of the Soil (Markens Grøde) earned Hamsun the Nobel Prize in Literature in 1920. In awarding the prize, the Nobel Committee praised the novel as ‘a classic, but in a deeper and more profound sense than usual’, while H. G. Wells described it as ‘one of the very greatest novels I have ever read’.
The novel follows the life of a settler in rural Norway and his relationship with the land he cultivates. Through its portrayal of labour, nature, and self-sufficiency, Hamsun contrasts the rhythms of rural life with the encroachment of modernity. Renowned for his psychological insight and innovative narrative techniques, Hamsun is often regarded as a precursor of literary modernism, seeking, in his own words, to capture the ‘whisper of blood’ and the ‘pleading of bone marrow’.
Issued in London in April 1920, this first edition in English preceded the first US edition by one year (Alfred A. Knopf, New York, 1921).
SKU: 2121259