After Laxness was awarded the Nobel Prize for Literature in 1955, many more of his works were translated. However, it proved difficult to publish Laxness’s novels in Englishspeaking countries, especially in the United States, due to his self-described socialist views, which were suspect during the Cold War era. In the 1980s, the German publisher Steidl began republishing Laxness’s novels. Earlier translations were revised, and novels that had not been translated previously were published. In the 1990s, following the fall of the Berlin Wall and the end of the Cold War, Laxness finally made a significant breakthrough in the American publishing market when Random House republished Independent People, receiving positive reviews from critics at the Washington Post and New York Times. Other translations soon followed, not only in Germany and the United States but also in countries such as Britain, the Netherlands, France, and Turkey. New translations of Halldór Laxness’s works continue to be published regularly worldwide. Today, Laxness’s
writings have been published in more than 500 editions and in over 40 languages.
Translations
Halldór Laxness began his career as a writer at the young age of 17. He became a prolific writer of novels, poetry, plays, essays, autobiographical works and short stories who also translated literature by such writers as Voltaire and Hemingway. His works have travelled the world and been translated into more than 40 languages. Ten of his major novels are currently available in English language translations.
When Halldór Laxness moved to the United States at the end of the 1920s, he worked on translating his novel The Great Weaver of Kashmir with Magnús A. Árnason, but was unable to find a publisher. It wasn’t until the Icelandic writer Gunnar Gunnarsson, then at the height of his popularity in Denmark, translated Salka Valka into Danish in 1934 that people outside of Iceland noticed this young writer. The publication of Salka Valka into Danish marked the beginning of Laxness’s recognition as a writer of global relevance.
Following the 1936 publication of Salka Valka in Britain and the United States, other novels by Laxness were translated. Random House published Independent People in 1946, a book that was chosen as the book of the month by the country’s largest book club. Independent People sold half a million copies in only two weeks.