Selma Lagerlöf

Selma Lagerlöf was born in 1858 in Östra Emterwik, Värmland, Sweden. She was raised on her family estate and became a teacher at the girls’ secondary school in Landskrona in 1885. Although she had been writing poetry since her early childhood years, she did not publish anything until 1890 when a Swedish weekly gave her the first prize in a literary competition and published excerpts from the book which was to be her best, and most popular work. In 1891, Gösta Berlings Saga was published. However, it went fairly unnoticed by the general public until it’s Danish translation received wide critical acclaim and paved the way for the book’s lasting success worldwide. In 1895, she was able to abandon teaching altogether as a cause of financial support from the Royal Family and the Swedish Academy. She proceeded to write Antikrists mirakler (The Miracles of Antichrist) in 1897, a novel set in Sicily after she visited Italy. Lagerlöf published Jerusalem in 1901-1902 after producing several other minor works. Jerusalem was about Swedish peasants who emigrated to the Holy Land and whom she had visited in 1900. This novel was her first immediate success. In 1906, Lagerlöf published one of the most charming children’s book in any language, Nils Holgerssons underbara resa genom Sverige (The Wonderful Adventure of Nils). However, none of her later works would ever match the success or power of her first novel, Gösta Berlings Saga. Lagerlöf proceeded to win the Nobel Prize for Literature in 1909. Her prize motivation was “in appreciation of lofty idealism, vivid imagination and spiritual perception that characterize her writings” (the Noble Prize Committee of 1909).