Hamsun, Hunger, 1899, Vyvian Holland's copy

HAMSUN, KNUT

Hunger. Leonard Smithers and Co., 1899

8vo, first English edition, translated from the Norwegian by Mary Chavelita Dunne Bright ("George Egerton"), original light grey pictorial cloth stamped and lettered in black, some spotting and soiling to text and binding, a few gatherings carelessly opened, cloth slightly torn

First English edition of the influential Norwegian author's first novel (Sult in Norwegian). Knut Hamsun went on to publish more than twenty novels over a period of 70 years and is now considered a pioneer in the development of the psychological novel, influencing Kafka, Mann, Hesse and Hemingway, among others. He was awarded the Nobel Prize for Literature in 1920. The Australian-born Mary Chavelita Dunne Bright was one of the important writers in the New Woman movement, and lived in Norway for a time, and had a brief liaison with Hamsun (inspiring her 1893 short story "Now Spring Has Come"). With her translation of Hunger she was the first to make his work available to an English readership.

PROVENANCE:

Vyvian Holland, bookplate

The author and translator Vyvyan Holland OBE (1886–1967), born Vyvyan Oscar Beresford Wilde, was the second son of Oscar Wilde and Constance Lloyd

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