Nobel Prize Recipient. Halldor Laxness, an Icelandic author, received world-wide recognition after being awarded the 1955 Nobel Prize in Literature. According to the Nobel Prize committee, he received this coveted award "for his vivid epic power which has renewed the great narrative art of Iceland." By 1948 he had received from literary scholars from around the world 25 nominations for the Nobel candidacy. As of 2021, he is the only Nobel Prize recipient from Iceland. During his writing career, he authored more than 60 works including novels, poems, plays, essays, short stories, memoirs, and travel books. Born Halldór Guðjónsson in the capitol of Iceland, when he was three years old, his family relocated to Mosfellssveit Parish,a rural area of Iceland. His writing skills were recognized at a very early age, when he had an article published in a newspaper. He attended a technical school in Reykjavík. At the age of seventeen, he went to Europe, staying mainly in Germany and France. In 1919 he published his first novel, "Child of Nature." In 1923 he converted to Roman Catholicism in his mid-twenties, joining the Abbey at Saint-Maurice-et-Saint-Maur in Luxembourg, where the monks practiced the rule of a humble spirit of moderation and reason. It was during this time that he changed his name: He adopted the surname "Laxness" after the homestead on which he was raised and adding the name Kiljan, the Icelandic name for the Irish martyr St.Killan. While at the abbey, he practiced self-study, studying French, Latin, theology, and philosophy. His faith poured over into his writings, such as in his 1924 novel, "Under the Holy Mountain." His first successful novel was published in 1927, "The Great Weaver from Kashmir." After a visit to the United States, his writings focused more on socialism than Christianity. Returning to Iceland by 1930, Laxness settled, staying there most of his life. Between 1934 to 1935, he published the two-volume "The Independent People" with socialism overtones, while abandoning the church. His later writing involved the history of Iceland. In the 21st century, several of his novels have been translated into the English language including "Salka Valka," "Independent People," "World Light," "Iceland's Bell," "Paradise Reclaimed" and "Under the Glacier." In the United States in 1946, "Independent People" was chosen as the "Book of the Month Club" selection and sold over 450,000. His books have been translated to 30 languages. While in the United States shortly after World War I, he had befriended Pulitzer Prize recipient author, Upton Sinclair, who was a liberal politician, hence this relationship placed Laxness on the FBI watch list. He had attempted to find a place in the Hollywood film industry, but this failed. "Salka Valka" had been originally written as a screenplay for Hollywood studio of Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer under the title "Woman in Pants". Every copy of the first edition of his 1948 "The Atom Station" sold on the initial day of the release; this book caused even more animosity between him and the United States. He translated a few on Sinclair's pieces into the Icelandic language. Among the other pieces that he translated from English to the Icelandic languages were Nobel Prize recipient, Ernest Hemmingway's "Farewell to Arms" and the 1964 memoir, "A Moveable Feast." His residence and a garden are now a museum maintained by the Icelandic government. Every other year, the Halldór Laxness International Literary Prize is awarded at the Reykjavík International Literary Festival. He married twice and had four children. His daughter, Guaný Halldórsdóttir, is an award-winning filmmaker, and her first production was an adaption of her father's 1968 book "Under the Glacier." His 500-page biography, "The Islander," by Halldór Guðmundsson received the Icelandic literary prize for best work of non-fiction in 2004. Suffering from Alzheimer's Disease for some years, he was placed in a nursing facility three years before his death.