Martin Andersen Nexø, a Danish writer, was born on June 26, 1869 in a very poor area of Copenhagen, Denmark to a large family. His family moved to Nexø (from which he took Nexø as a last name), Denmark in 1877.

In the mid-1890s Martin Andersen Nexø travelled in Southern Europe, and his book Soldage (1903) is to a large extent based on those travels. Probably his best known and most translated book is Pelle Erobreren (Pelle The Conqueror), the last volume of which was completed in 1910. The beginning part of the book was the subject of a movie in 1987.

Martin Andersen Nexø joined the Danish Communist Party and was jailed in 1941 by the Danish police during Denmark's occupation by the Nazis. However, he got out and went to neutral Sweden. From Sweden, he went to the Soviet Union where he did broadcasts to Denmark and Norway (which was also occupied by the Nazis).

After World War II, Nexø moved to Dresden in East Germany, where he was named an honourary citizen. Among other things the Martin-Andersen-Nexø-Gymnasium Highschool in Dresden was named after him. Nexø died in Dresden on June 1, 1954.