Knut Hamsun, born Knud Pedersen was a Norwegian author. He was considered by Isaac Bashevis Singer to be the "father of modern literature". In 1920, the Nobel Committee awarded him the Nobel Prize in Literature, "for his monumental work, Growth of the Soil". He insisted that the intricacies of the human mind ought to be the main object of modern literature, to describe the "whisper of the blood, and the pleading of the bone marrow". Hamsun pursued his literary program, debuting in 1890 with the psychological novel Hunger.

Hamsun was a prominent advocate of Germany and German culture, and an opponent of British Imperialism as well as the Soviet Union. During World War II, Hamsun supported Vidkun Quisling and his party Nasjonal Samling, and was later charged for treason. However, the charges were dropped, but a civil liability case was raised against him, and in 1948, he was fined 325.000 kroner for his alleged Nasjonal Samling membership, a membership which is disputed.