Halldór Laxness - 1950s

1950s

In 1953 Laxness was awarded the Soviet-sponsored World Peace Council Literary Prize.

An adaptation of his novel Salka Valka was filmed by Sven Nykvist in 1954.

In 1955, Laxness was awarded the Nobel Prize in Literature, "for his vivid epic power which has renewed the great narrative art of Iceland":

"His chief literary works belong to the genre... narrative prose fiction. In the history of our literature Laxness is mentioned beside Snorri Sturluson and the author of the "Njals saga", and his place in world literature is among writers such as Cervantes, Zola, Tolstoy, and Hamsun... He is the most prolific and skillful essayist in Icelandic literature both old and new..."

In the presentation address for the Nobel prize E. Wesen stated:

"He is an excellent painter of Icelandic scenery and settings. Yet this is not what he has conceived of as his chief mission. 'Compassion is the source of the highest poetry. Compassion with Asta Sollilja on earth,' he says in one of his best books... And a social passion underlies everything Halldór Laxness has written. His personal championship of contemporary social and political questions is always very strong, sometimes so strong that it threatens to hamper the artistic side of his work. His safeguard then is the astringent humour which enables him to see even people he dislikes in a redeeming light, and which also permits him to gaze far down into the labyrinths of the human soul."

In his acceptance speech for the Nobel prize he spoke of:

"... the moral principles she instilled in me: never to harm a living creature; throughout my life, to place the poor, the humble, the meek of this world above all others; never to forget those who were slighted or neglected or who had suffered injustice, because it was they who, above all others, deserved our love and respect..."

Laxness grew increasingly disenchanted with the Soviets after their military action in Hungary in 1956.

In 1957 Halldór and his wife (Auður Sveinsdóttir) went on a world tour, stopping in: New York City, Washington, D.C., Chicago, Madison, Salt Lake City, San Francisco, Peking, Bombay, Cairo and Rome.

Major works in this decade were Gerpla (The Happy Warriors, 1952), Brekkukotsannáll (The Fish Can Sing, 1957), and Paradísarheimt (Paradise Reclaimed, 1960).