Giants in the Earth

Originally published in 1927 Ole Edvart Rolvaag''s Giants in the Earth is a classic Norweigian-American immigration novel. Ole Edvart Rolvaag was a Norwegian-American novelist and professor who became well known for his writings regarding the Norwegian American immigrant experience.Giants in the Earth follows a Norwegian pioneer family''s struggles with the land and the elements of the Dakota Territory as they try to make a new life in America. The book is based partly on Rolvaag''s personal experiences as a settler and on the experiences of his wifes family who had been immigrant homesteaders. The novel depicts snowstorms locusts poverty hunger loneliness homesickness the difficulty of fitting into a new culture and the estrangement of immigrant children who grow up in a new land. Giants in the Earth was turned into an opera by Douglas Moore and Arnold Sundgaard; it won the Pulitzer Prize for Music in 1951.