With the appearance of _Children of the Age_ (or _Children of the Times_) in 1909, followed by _Segelfoss Town_ and _Growth of the Soil_, the reader of persistent interest in Hamsun realized that the author had orientated himself, that he was “finding his place” in literature. He was still defying society, “the group,” still disclaiming belief in democracy, but he had gained “a social vision.” In method characteristic of many novelists, he has chosen a family, with strong racial traits, the family of Willatz Holmsen, for the expression of his sociological ideas. The despotic, anxious Willatz III, a retired Lieutenant, is a character that lingers in memory; he is vitally real in his relations with his wife, of higher social rank, and with his son, the musicianly boy; he is dramatic and pathetic in his defiance of Tobias Holmengraa, the industrial “king” from South America. The last days of stubborn pride and loneliness are scenes of artistic fiction. _Segelfoss Town_, written before _The Growth of the Soil_, but translated afterwards by J. S. Scott (Knopf, 1925), continues the story of this family and the departure of Holmengraa, after a financial collapse, leaving behind his daughter, Mariane, half Mexican in blood, who marries the commercial “leader of the small town. Segelfoss Town has been called a ‘Norwegian Main Street.’” There is much irony and reiterated sordidness in the tale. The telegraph operator, Baardsen, is a daring, strong character. In the Introduction to _Dreamers_, W. W. Worster (New York, 1922) calls _The Growth of the Soil_ Hamsun’s “greatest triumph.” It is the _one_ book thus far appearing in American edition, that seems to win wide reading. It is localized in setting, objective in theme, and universal in human appeal. Isac (or Isak) is a convincing character of elemental type. He symbolizes man, when face to face with nature. Inger is a coarse Lapp woman in her physical nature yet she seeks expression for finer feelings, even as she strangles the third baby girl that would bear, through life, the mother’s curse of a hair lip. “Back to the soil!” is the message of this masterpiece of Norwegian fiction. It has a large group of Norwegian characters, and a challenging tone regarding many moral issues, but it maintains artistic unity.