When Henrik Pontoppidan turned fifteen, he was visiting the island of Bogø in southern Denmark, where his grandfather had served as the parish pastor. An older cousin took him up to the highest spot on the island and pointed across the water toward the many church spires dotting the Danish landscape. For the previous 350 years in the surrounding Danish parishes, either the pastor or his wife had belonged to the Pontoppidan family. Later in life, Pontoppidan described this experience in one of his autobiographical works, Drengeaar (Boyhood Years, 1933); the view of the spires made him understand that he was a sort of heir to the realm. He was descended from a long line of pastors, but he never became a clergyman himself; instead, he viewed his native Denmark as his parish. In his brief autobiography to the Nobel Foundation, written after sharing the Nobel Prize in literature...