[citation needed] Holt was born in Våle Municipality in Vestfold, Norway.
His parents were Peder Anton Kristiansen (1870-1958) and Mathilde Sofie Larsen Rønningen (1871-1945).
He is also remembered for his mythologically-based novels about icons of Norwegian history, among others Kappløpet about Roald Amundsen which created a sensation when it was published in 1974.
[3] Holt won The Norwegian Critics Prize for Literature 1954, for Mennesker ved en grense.
In 2007, a bust of the author by artist Ada Madssen was unveiled in front of his former house at Reidvintunet, an open-air museum in the village of Hillestad in Holmestrand.