Marie Hamsun

Who was Marie Hamsun?

Marie Hamsun was a Norwegian actress and writer.

Marie Andersen was born in Elverum, Hedmark, Norway. She was the eldest child in an affluent family. In 1897 the family moved to Christiania, where her father was involved in the property trade for twenty years until he bought the farm in Åneby in Nittedal. She attended Ragna Nielsen's private school, where in 1901 she took final exams. Then she worked for three years as a governess and teacher. The Norwegian actor Society headed by Dore Lavik took her in as an actress. In the following years she toured around in Norway, until she was hired as a student at the National Theatre in 1907. In 1909, she became the second wife of the noted author, Knut Hamsun, with whom she had four children, sons Tore and Arild and daughters Eleanor and Cecilia.

She wrote two collections of poems and several children's books. Hamsun's work has been translated to several other languages, including Swedish, German, English, Latvian and Dutch. She also published two biographies about her life with Knut Hamsun: Regnbuen and Under gullregnen.