Selma Lagerlöf

Who is Selma Lagerlöf?

Selma Lagerlöf was a Swedish author and the first woman to win the Nobel Prize in Literature, awarded to her in 1909. Born at the Mårbacka estate in Värmland, she trained and worked as a schoolteacher before achieving literary fame. Her debut novel Gösta Berling's Saga (1891) drew on the legends and landscapes of her home province and established her distinctive style, blending realism with folklore and the fantastic. Among her most famous works is The Wonderful Adventures of Nils (Nils Holgerssons underbara resa genom Sverige), originally commissioned as a geography reader for Swedish schoolchildren, in which a boy travels across Sweden on the back of a goose. Her writing often addressed moral and spiritual questions. In 1914 she became the first woman elected to the Swedish Academy. She used her Nobel Prize money to buy back the family estate at Mårbacka.

Sources: Selma Lagerlöf, Gösta Berlings saga (1891) · Selma Lagerlöf, Nils Holgerssons underbara resa genom Sverige (1906–1907)