Thor Vilhjálmsson was born in 1925 in Edinburgh, Scotland, the son of Icelandic parents. After five years the family moved to Iceland. He has lived several years in Paris and has spent seasons in Italy. He is considered the greatest innovator of modern Icelandic literature. He has written about 30 books and has exhibited his paintings several times. He has also translated into Icelandic numerous writers such as André Malraux and Umberto Eco. In 1989 he was named in France Knight of Arts and Letters and in 1992 he was awarded the Prize of the Swedish Academy (known as the "Little Nobel Prize").