Nobel Prize Recipient. Sigrid Undset, a Norwegian novelist, received international recognition after being awarded the 1928 Nobel Prize for Literature. She received her coveted award, according to the Nobel Prize committee, "principally for her powerful descriptions of Northern life during the Middle Ages." She received four nominations within four years to be a Nobel candidate with two members of the Royal Norwegian Society of Sciences and Letters submitting one. She did not submit a biography to the Nobel Prize committee, but gave a short acceptance speech. In her novels, she combined scholarly knowledge with great emotional insight into her characters. These include the three-volume "Kristin Lavransdatter" from 1920 to 1922 and the four-volume "Olaf Audunsson" from 1925 to 1927. She published at least 35 novels with most being translated into English. Born in Denmark, her parents with their three daughters moved to Norway when she was a two-year-old. Her distinguished archaeologist father, Ingvald Undset, who died when she was eleven, inspired her interest in the history and folklore of the North in the Middle Ages. She was educated in local schools before becoming an office clerk at the age of sixteen. While working at the office in the daytime, she wrote at night. At the age of 25, she made her literary debut with a short, realistic novel on adultery, set against a contemporary background. After rejection letters, she had abandoned her novel with the theme of the North in the Middle Ages. After her third novel, she received a scholarship to travel to southern Europe, where she met her artist husband. They were married in 1912, and soon she was the mother of three children and the stepmother to his three children. By 1920, the marriage had ended. It was at this point, that the theme of her novels changed to the North in the Middle Ages. In 1924, she converted to Catholicism, which played a role in her writings. In 1927 her marriage was legally declared invalid. In 1934, she published "Eleven Years Old," her autobiography. She wrote a number of essays about other authors. She started a series of novels set in the 18th century but did not finish the series as World War II took away all her creative energy. She wrote patriotic political speeches. Her retarded daughter died within a short time of her oldest son, who was an officer in the Norwegian Army, being killed in action on April 27, 1940. During World War II while Norway was occupied by Nazi forces, she and her youngest son fled first to Sweden then to the United States from 1940 to 1945. In her later years Undset's obsession with the Middle Ages carried over into her personal life. She lived in a restored 11th-Century house in Lillehammer and wore the gown of a medieval Norse matron. She never wrote another sentence after the war, dying four years after the end of the war.