Meet...novelist Selma Lagerlöf

What should you know about Selma Lagerlöf?

A feminist and a pacifist, Selma Lagerlöf was the first woman and the first Swede to win a Nobel Prize for Literature in 1909. She began writing poetry as a child, encouraged by her grandmother and influenced by some of the most important writers of the 19th century, but Lagerlöf didn't publish anything until she won first prize in a newspaper sponsored literary contest in 1890, at the age of 32. The winning entry was an excerpt from Gösta Berling's Saga, her first and most widely acclaimed novel, published the following year.

At that time Lagerlöf was teaching school in Landskrona and writing in her spare time. However, she abandoned the job in 1895 after her second book, a collection short stories, was published to devote herself to her writing. Her work often reflected religious themes, some contrary to traditional Christian doctrine, and the supernatural.


How many books has she published?

Since Gösta Berling's Saga in 1891 until her death in 1940, Lagerlöf wrote and published nearly 40 books, including short stories collections, novels, memoirs/ and a children's book that is still used in Scandinavian schools today, The Wonderful Voyage of Nils Holgersson. Some of her most notable works beside Gösta Berling's Saga are Christ Legends, a collection of short stories; The Ring of the Löwenskölds, a historical trilogy; the two-part novel Jerusalem; and The Miracles of Antichrist. Many of her books have been translated into English and other languages, and Dover Publications reissued an English version of Gösta Berling's Saga in 2004 in a paperback edition.

In presenting the Nobel Prize for Literature, the committee cited Lagerlöf's "lofty idealism, vivid imagination and spiritual perception that characterized her writings." By then she had published about a dozen books. The bulk of her writing would come later.


In 1911 Lagerlöf received an honorary doctorate and shortly after became the first woman elected to the Swedish Academy. She spoke often on women's suffrage issues and on pacifist causes during WWI. During WWII, she actively supported the resistance against Nazi Germany, including efforts to get German artists and intellectuals out of Germany and the concentration camps.

In 1917 director Victor Sjöström began to put Lagerlöf's work on film. Lagerlöf's novels have produced more than 30 times on film and T.V. since then.

How much of her writings are still available?

English translations of Lagerlöf's work have published as recently as 2004. I found about a dozen available on Alibris. Her children's book now called The Wonderful Adventures of Nils has been translated into 30 languages and is still used in schools. Several versions are available on Amazon. DVDs of her movies and televisions shows are decidedly more difficult to find. I checked several sites and found only Gösta Berling's Saga with Greta Garbo on Amazon.

Lagerlöf died in 1940 after suffering a cerebral hemorrhage. She was 82.




Sources: NobelPrize.org, About.com, Scandinavica.com