Anti-American Wins Nobel Prize (2011)

Born in Reykjavik, Iceland in 1902, Halldór Kiljan Laxness spent his formative years in his homeland. At seventeen, he embarked on a life of travel and living abroad, primarily in continental Europe. There, he was shaped by expressionism and other modern artistic movements in Germany and France. He briefly converted to Catholicism in the mid-1920s, but this period was short-lived. A trip to America led him to embrace socialism, a political stance that would later cause him issues with Icelandic authorities and ultimately result in a U.S. blacklist, despite his works' popularity and critical acclaim.