Even those of his countrymen who do not read literature know Hamsun's name. After World War II, at eighty-nine, he was accused of collaboration with the German occupation forces in Norway and sentenced to pay the Norwegian government practically everything he owned. Norwegians have begun to doubt whether their treatment of the old novelist was appropriate, but in the bitterness and disappointment of the postwar years it is excusable: the betrayal had been committed by a man who had been his country's most beloved writer. His popularity is not difficult to understand: despite its often sordid details and tragic tone, the typical Hamsun novel has humor, charm, love of life, and, above all, a joy in nature that can be appreciated by readers everywhere.
The fourth of seven children, Hamsun was born Knut Pedersen on 4 August 1859 in Gudbrandsdalen; scholars disagree as to whether Lom or the neighboring community of Vågå was his actual birthplace. The valley is the heart of Norway, known both for its scenic beauty and for its acclaimed artists and cultural achievements; two of Norway's best twentieth-century poets, Olav Aukrust and Tor Jonsson, came from Lom. His father, Peder Pedersen, was an itinerant tailor from Vågå; his mother, Tora Olsdatter Garmotraedet Pedersen, came from an old and respected Lom family, although her immediate relatives had recently come down in the world.
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