Andersen Nexo, Martin

Andersen Nexö, Martin 

(real surname Andersen, pseudonym Nexö). Born June 26, 1869, in Copenhagen; died June 1, 1954, in Dresden. Danish writer, son of a stonemason.

Andersen Nexo became acquainted with the ideas of scientific socialism in workers’ political circles. He was a teacher at a public school in Odense. He was first published in 1893, and his earliest works were later included in the collection Poems (1926). In 1898 he published Shadows, a book of stories; in 1903, Days in the Sun, a book of essays and stories about Spain. His novel Pelle the Conqueror (vols. 1–4, 1906–10) was mentioned by V. I. Lenin as a work of proletarian literature (see Poln. sobr. soch., 5th ed., vol. 28, p. 258). The novel Ditte, Daughter of Man (vols. 1–5, 1917–21) had a proletarian woman as its main heroine. Andersen Nexö was greatly influenced by the October Revolution and became one of the founders of the Communist Party of Denmark. In the book To Meet the New Day (1923; Russian translation, Na rassvete, 1925) he wrote about his trip to Soviet Russia (1922). He battled against the enemies of socialism (the books Two Worlds, 1934; Russian translation, 1935; and Hands Off!, 1935). During the National Revolutionary War in Spain, a battalion of the International Brigade was named after him. His friendship with M. Gorky was very important for the author.

He began his novel Morten the Red (1945—48) in occupied Denmark and finished it in Sweden, where he fled from the German occupiers in 1943. The novels Lost Generation (1948) and Jeanette (unfinished, published 1957) were sequels. Morten, the hero of the cycle, becomes acquainted with the teachings of Lenin, and this strengthens his faith in the socialist future of mankind. Andersen Nexö developed toward socialist realism in his own way. His creative method was characterized by a combination of publicistic passion, a sharply critical view of bourgeois society, and a steadfast striving to bring reality into accord with the socialist ideal.

During 1944–45, Andersen Nexö lived in the USSR. In his articles (the collection Letters to a Fellow Countryman, 1945) and speeches on Radio Moscow, he called upon his compatriots to participate in the Resistance Movement. He returned to Denmark in 1945. In 1950 he was elected to the World Peace Council. He spent the last years of his life in the German Democratic Republic, whose government honored him with the National Prize. He was a member of the Committee on the International Lenin Prizes for Strengthening Peace Between Nations.

WORKS

Pelle-Erobreren, [vols.] 1–2, 5th ed. [Copenhagen,] 1946.

Morten hin røde. Copenhagen, 1947.

Den fortabte generation. Copenhagen, 1948.

Ditte menneskebarn, 8th ed., vols. 1–2. Copenhagen, 1950.

In German translation:

Gesammelte Werke. Berlin, 1956.

In Russian translation:

Izbrannoe. Moscow, 1949.

Sobr. soch., vols. 1–10. Moscow, 1951–54.

Avtobiograficheskie povesti. Moscow, 1959.

Poteriannoe pokolenie. Zhanneta. Moscow, 1961.

Molodost’: Rasskazy. Moscow, 1967.

REFERENCES

Illesh, B. Krasnyi viking. [Moscow,] 1940.
Chakovskii, A. Martin Andersen Nekse. Moscow, 1940.
Dymshits, A. Andersen Nekse. Moscow-Leningrad, 1951.
Neustroev, V. P. Martin Andersen Nekse. Moscow, 1951.
Krymova, N., and A. Pogodin. Martin Andersen Nekse. Moscow, 1960.
Berendsohn, W. A. M. A. Nexø’s Weg in Weltliteratur. Berlin, 1949.
Houmann, B. Drømmen om en ny verden: Martin Andersen Nexøog hans forhold til Sovjetunion. Copenhagen, 1957.
Bibliographic indexes:
M. Andersen Nekse. Compiled by A. I. Kuz’min, M. S. Morsh-chiner, and I. V. Toksina. Moscow, 1953.
Kristensen, M. Martin Andersen Nexø bøger: En bibliografi. Copenhagen, 1948.

V. P. NEUSTROEV