Henrik Pontoppidan (July 24, 1857 - August 21, 1943) was a realist writer who shared with Karl Gjellerup the Nobel Prize for Literature in 1917 for "his authentic descriptions of present-day life in Denmark." Pontoppidan's novels and short stories - informed with a desire for social progress but despairing, later in his life, of its realization - present an unusually comprehensive picture of his country and his epoch.