At one point prior to the outbreak of World War II, the popularity of the Trilogy made Gulbranssen the fourth-bestselling author worldwide, and the success of the American editions of his work secured for him the distinction of being the only Scandinavian author of fiction to be included in the prestigious List of Books Chosen for the White House – a collection of works of literature selected by U.S. publishers and presented to the White House in order to provide the president with a library of the very best in contemporary literature.

[4] Gulbranssen's primary profession was tobacconist; in association with his business partners he imported tobacco, cigars, cigarettes, pipes, and other items.

In 1940, Gulbranssen moved with his family to a farm in Eidsberg, allowing him to realize his dream of being a farmer, and even though he did not personally participate in the daily chores, he invested a great deal of effort in the planning and management of the enterprise.

[6] Trygve Gulbranssen was born on Molstad Farm on Enebakk Road in the Vålerenga neighborhood of Kristiania (now Oslo) in 1894.

He had two older brothers, Birger and Alfred, as well as tree younger sisters, Camilla, Ragnhild Margrethe and Tora Elvira.

Her father was a farmer and freighter captain named Johan Anton Jørgensen Strandengen (died 1899) and mother Bolette Olsdatter, born Skau.

Christen Gulbrandsen, a carpenter and master builder, provided a good living for his family by buying and renovating townhouses before reselling them.

Paradoxically, they kept on moving to gradually "nicer" addresses as the economy deteriorated, which probably resulted from the family taking up residence in some of the father's renovation projects.

[7] On account of the father's business, there were many changes of residence, which caused the young Gulbranssen to lose contact with his friends and grow lonely.

As a nine-year-old, he started out as a courier and ran errands, initially for private individuals and family, and later for haberdashers, butchers, cobblers, dairies, fishmongers, coal merchants, and many types of businesses and stores in Kristiania.

He seized every opportunity to read – surreptitiously under the desk at school, walking in the street, and while chopping wood or running errands.

At age fifteen he produced a series of humorous drawings which he sent to a Danish joke magazine, securing for himself a small amount of supplementary income in the process.

He spent most of the time in the office, but would often visit the shop floor to learn about the tiresome conditions of regular workers – an experience which may have been important later on when he sought to describe the toil of the very same kind of people in his novels.

The place was hardly one of the best neighborhoods,[18] but Gulbranssen had a good view from the apartment on the fifth floor and was able to observe life in the marketplace at Brugata No.

The sight of farmers coming into the city to buy and sell goods enabled him to paint a realistic picture of commerce between town and country in his fiction.

Gulbranssen's sister was able to attend secondary school and stood for her examinations in 1913, the same year her brother was promoted to bookkeeper.

So as not to be a burden to her brothers, she chose not to study medicine (which one of her teachers had encouraged her to do), but instead took a position at an insurance company, where she remained until she married in 1921.

The loss of Alfred had a profound impact on the young Gulbranssen, to which he gave expression through compiling a memorial album containing all of the photographs taken of his brother.

Gulbranssen sold his stake in the tobacco business as quickly as possible, realizing that the blockade accompanying the war would make it difficult to continue as a tobacconist.

[24] Spending time on his grandfather's farm had been Gulbranssen's version of paradise as a child, and he had been looking for many years for a farmstead where he could recreate the life of his forefathers.

Gulbranssen invested heavily in running a model farm – something his wealth of notes dealing with purchases and general management bear witness to.

[25] Even though Gulbranssen was active in the management of the farm, he never participated directly in the daily labor, so in order to implement all of the plans he had for Hobøl, he employed a welder, an agronomist, a housekeeper, a cook, a maid and two farmhands.

[32] In 1939 when the humanist and writer Max Tau fled from Nazi Germany to Norway with the help of Tore Hamsun, Trygve Gulbranssen was one of the first to open his home to him,[33] inaugurating a lifelong friendship.

The Peace Library's first publication, The Future in Your Hands by A. den Doolaard and photographer Cas Oorthuys, came out in Norway and the Netherlands at the same time.

In spite of all this, the lack of contact with the outside world and his foreign publishers, in addition to the absence of radio and uncensored newspapers, left him with a sense of isolation.

Since Gulbranssen was a farmer, he had at his disposal resources which were at that time in short supply, but he was willing to share, such as when he gave the Authors' Union an entire ox so that they could hold their planned peace and anniversary celebration.

A number of issues needed to be worked out; for example instances where his novels had been printed abroad without his consent, and without any royalties having been paid.

In 1958, all of the farm's animals were sold at auction and Gulbranssen, like many other farmers in Østfold, was forced to rely entirely on the production of grain.

[36] Gulbranssen had worked hard to create a model farm, and the animals, which had been bred to be among the best in Eidsberg, included several prize-winning cows.