Selma Lagerlöf

Selma Lagerlöf

Selma Lagerlöf, 1909
Born 20 November 1858(1858-11-20)
Mårbacka, Värmland, Sweden
Died 16 March 1940(1940-03-16) (aged 81)
Mårbacka, Värmland, Sweden
Occupation Writer
Nationality Swedish
Notable award(s) Nobel Prize in Literature
1909

Selma Ottilia Lovisa Lagerlöf (Swedish pronunciation: [ˈsɛlma ˈlɑːɡərˌløːv] ( listen); 20 November 1858 – 16 March 1940) was a Swedish author. She was the first female writer to win the Nobel Prize in Literature, and most widely known for her children's book Nils Holgerssons underbara resa genom Sverige (The Wonderful Adventures of Nils).

Contents

Early life

Born at Mårbacka[1] (now in Sunne Municipality) an estate in Värmland in western Sweden, Lagerlöf was the daughter of Lieutenant Erik Gustaf Lagerlöf and Louise Lagerlöf née Wallroth. The couple's fourth child, she was born with a hip injury. An early sickness left her lame in both legs, although she later recovered. She was a quiet child, more serious than others her age, with a deep love of reading. The sale of Mårbacka following her father's illness in 1884 had a serious impact on her development.

Career

Lagerlöf worked as a country schoolteacher in Landskrona for nearly 10 years while honing her story-telling skills, with particular focus on the legends she had learned as a child. Through her studies at the Royal Women's Superior Training Academy in Stockholm, Lagerlöf reacted against the realism of contemporary Swedish language writers such as August Strindberg. She began her first novel, Gösta Berling's Saga, while working as a teacher in Landskrona. Her first break as a writer came when she submitted the first chapters to a literary contest, and won a publishing contract for the whole book. She received financial support of Fredrika Limnell, who wished to enable her to concentrate on her writing.

In 1894 she met Sophie Elkan, also a writer, who became her friend and companion. Judging from letters between them, Lagerlöf fell deeply in love with her.[2] Over many years, Elkan and Lagerlöf critiqued each other's work. Lagerlöf wrote of Elkan's strong influence on her work, often disagreeing sharply with the direction Lagerlöf wanted to take in her books.

A 1900 visit to the American Colony in Jerusalem became the inspiration for Lagerlöf's book by that name.[3] By 1895, she gave up her teaching to devote herself to her writing. With the help of proceeds from Gösta Berlings Saga and a scholarship and grant, she made two journeys which were largely instrumental in providing material for her next novel. With Elkan, she traveled to Italy, and she also traveled to Palestine and other parts of the East.[4] In Italy, a legend of a Christ Child figure that had been replaced with a false version inspired Lagerlöf's novel Antikrists mirakler (The Miracles of the Antichrist). Set in Sicily, the novel explores the interplay between Christian and socialist moral systems. However, most of Lagerlöf's stories were set in Värmland.

She moved in 1897 to Falun, and there met Valborg Olander, who became her literary assistant, friend, and associate. Elkan's jealousy of Olander was a complication in the relationship. Olander, a teacher, was also active in the growing women's suffrage movement in Sweden.

Literary adaptations

In 1919 Lagerlöf sold all the movie rights to all of her as-yet unpublished works to Swedish Cinema Theatre (Svenska Biografteatern), and so over the years many movie versions of her works were made. During the 'Golden Age' of Swedish silent cinema her works were used in film by Victor Sjöström, Mauritz Stiller and other Swedish cinema pioneers.[5] Sjöström's retelling of Lagerlöf's tales about rural Swedish life, in which his camera recorded the detail of traditional village life and the Swedish landscape, provided the basis of some of the most poetic and memorable products of early silent cinema. Jerusalem was adapted in 1996 into an internationally acclaimed film Jerusalem.

Awards and commemoration

In 1909 Selma Lagerlöf won the Nobel Prize "in appreciation of the lofty idealism, vivid imagination and spiritual perception that characterize her writings".[6] But the decision was preceded by harsh internal power struggle within the Swedish Academy.[7] In 1914 she also became a member of the Swedish Academy, the body that awards the Nobel Prize in literature. In 1928, she received an honorary doctorate from the University of Greifswald's Faculty of Arts. At the start of World War II, she sent her Nobel Prize medal and gold medal from the Swedish Academy to the government of Finland to help raise money to fight the Soviet Union.[8] The Finnish government was so touched that it raised the necessary money by other means and returned her medal to her.

Two hotels are named after her in Östra Ämtervik in Sunne, and her home, Mårbacka, is preserved as a museum. Since 1992, her portrait has been featured on the Swedish 20 kronor-bill.

Bibliography

Works by Selma Lagerlöf

Works published in Swedish with English translations.[9][10]

Works about Selma Lagerlöf

See also

References

  1. ^ H. G. L. (1916), "Miss Lagerlöf at Marbacka", in Henry Goddard Leach, The American-Scandinavian review, 4, American-Scandinavian Foundation, p. 36 
  2. ^ Munck, Kerstin (2002), "Lagerlöf, Selma", glbtq.com, http://www.glbtq.com/literature/lagerlof_s.html 
  3. ^ Zaun-Goshen, Heike (2002), Times of Change, http://info.jpost.com/C002/Supplements/TimesOfChange/book_ch1_3.html 
  4. ^  "Lagerlöf, Selma". Encyclopædia Britannica (12th ed.). 1922. 
  5. ^ Leif Furhammar (2010), "Selma Lagerlöf and Literary Adaptations", Mariah Larsson and Anders Marklund (eds), "Swedish Film: An Introduction and Reader", Lund: Nordic Academic Press, pp. 86-91.
  6. ^ "Literature 1909", NobelPrize.org, http://nobelprize.org/nobel_prizes/literature/laureates/1909/index.html, retrieved 6 March 2010 
  7. ^ "Våldsam debatt i Akademien när Lagerlöf valdes" (in swedish). Svenska Dagbladet. 25 september 2009. http://www.svd.se/kulturnoje/understrecket/valdsam-debatt-i-akademien-nar-lagerlof-valdes_3569005.svd. 
  8. ^ Gunther, Ralph (2003), "The magic zone: sketches of the Nobel Laureates", Scripta Humanistica 150: 36, ISBN 1882528409 
  9. ^ "Selma Lagerlöf - Bibliography", NobelPrize.org, http://nobelprize.org/nobel_prizes/literature/laureates/1909/lagerlof-bibl.html, retrieved 6 March 2010 
  10. ^ "Selma Lagerlöf", Books and Writers, http://www.kirjasto.sci.fi/lagerlof.htm, retrieved 6 March 2010 

Bibliography

External links

Wikisource has the text of a 1922 Encyclopædia Britannica article about Selma Lagerlöf.

Resources

Works online

Cultural offices
Preceded by
Albert Theodor Gellerstedt		 Swedish Academy,
Seat No.7
1914-1940		 Succeeded by
Hjalmar Gullberg
Nobel Laureates in Literature (1901–1925)
  • Complete list
  • (1901–1925)
  • (1926–1950)
  • (1951–1975)
  • (1976–2000)
  • (2001–2025)