RULE OF SILENCE

Evening Star, Issue 20367, 26 December 1929, Page 12

RULE OF SILENCE

HAMSUN ANSWERS QUESTIONS Efforts by Scandinavian newspaper men to break down the wall of silence erected between himself and the public many years ago by Knot Hamsun, Nobel prize winner in 1920, were just as unsuccessful on the occasion of the Norwegian writer’s seventieth birthday on August 4, according to accounts of the event found in European papers. Hamsun was pursued by an army of journalists, but he managed to elude all of them, with the exception of three from Oslo, who discovered him and his wife, Mane, on the eve of his birthday in Christiansand. Hut, as soon as tho pair learned of the presence of the reporters, they jumped into an automobile and made their escape to the open country, where the pursuers lost the trail.

In place of something more definite the ' Aftenposten ’ of Copenhagen printed an account by one of its staff of his recent attempt to interview Hamsun at an hotel where he was stopping. Ho met the author in the corridor just as h© was about to enter his room, introduced himself, and, without using the hated word “interview,” asked Hamsun’s opinions about certain matters. The latter removed his pincenez, sized up the journalist for a moment, an« tnea answered: — “ Please be so kind as to leave me in peace. I tell you 1 don’t live here at all. Adieu, sir!” And that was the end of the longedfor “interview.”

Nevertheless it appears that, despite his aversion to publicity, Hamsun answered a questionnaire sent out some time ago by the big Scandinavian publishing house Gyldendalsche to its most prominent collaborators. The questions, with Hamsun’s answers, are given as follows in the ‘ Neues Wiener Journal ’;—

“What is your motto?” “I should bo helped by Augustus’s ‘Festina Lente.’ ” “ What is your favourite occupation?”- ‘‘Playing kahbal (a Scandi-

navian game) in my idle time.” “ What book pleases you the most—with the exception of your own?” “Books don’t ‘please’ mo. _ But I value, for example, a realistic tale of a flight from Siberia by Klasko.” “What name do you like best?” "People’s names? ‘Les’ is good. ‘Alexandra ’ is good.” “What historical personage do you value the highest?” “I know only a few, and I can’t choose even among them.” “What historical personage do you despise the most?” “A number of politicians of the World War and later ” “ What do you eat and drink with the most pleasure?” “I am neither a glutton nor a gourmet. I cat and drink what is set before me.” “What quality do you value the highest m a man?” “Perhaps honesty.” “And in a woman?” “Honesty again.” “ What do you consider the worst thing?” “To die. I should never do it at all if not compelled to.”