He was awarded the 1944 Nobel Prize in Literature "for the rare strength and fertility of his poetic imagination with which is combined an intellectual curiosity of wide scope and a bold, freshly creative style".

He was born in Farsø, a village in North Jutland, Denmark, as the son of a veterinary surgeon[3] and he grew up in a rural environment.

His career began with the publication of Himmerland Stories (1898–1910), comprising a series of tales set in the part of Denmark where he was born.

[5] He developed his theories of evolution in a cycle of six novels, Den lange rejse (1908–22), translated into English as The Long Journey (1923–24), which was published in a two-volume edition in 1938.

After this he mostly concentrated on ambitious biological and zoological studies in an effort to create an ethical system based upon Darwinian ideas.

[citation needed] For many years he worked in journalism, writing articles and chronicles for the daily press without ever joining the staff of any newspaper.

In 1944 Johannes V. Jensen was awarded the Nobel Prize in Literature "for the rare strength and fertility of his poetic imagination with which is combined an intellectual curiosity of wide scope and a bold, freshly creative style.

"[8] At the award ceremony in Stockholm on 10 December 1945 Anders Österling, permanent secretary of the Swedish Academy said: This child of the dry and windy moors of Jutland has, almost out of spite, astonished his contemporaries by a remarkably prolific production.

He has constructed a vast and imposing literary œuvre, comprising the most diverse genres: epic and lyric, imaginative and realistic works, as well as historical and philosophical essays, not to mention his scientific excursions in all directions.