Selma Ottilia Lovisa Lagerlöf was born on 20 November 1858 atMårbacka,[4]Värmland,Kingdoms of Sweden and Norway. Lagerlöf was the daughter ofErik Gustaf Lagerlöf, a lieutenant in the Royal Värmland Regiment, and Louise Lagerlöf (née Wallroth), whose father was a well-to-do merchant and afoundry owner (brukspatron).[5] Lagerlöf was the couple's fifth child out of six. She was born with ahip injury, which was caused by detachment in the hip joint. At the age of three and a half, a sickness left her lame in both legs, although she later recovered.[6]
She was a quiet, serious child with a deep love ofreading. She wrote poetry but did not publish anything until later in life. Her grandmother helped raise her, often telling stories of fairytales and fantasy. Growing up, she was plain and slightly lame, and an account stated that the cross-country wanderings of Margarethe and Elisabet inGösta Berling's Saga could be the author's compensatory fantasies.[5] She received her schooling at home since theFolkskola compulsory education system was notfully developed yet. She studied English and French. After readingOsceola byThomas Mayne Reid at the age of seven, she decided she would be a writer when she grew up.[7]
In 1875, Lagerlöf lived in theKarlskoga Church Rectory alongsideErik Tullius Hammargren and his wife, Ottiliana Lagerlöf, who was her aunt, during which time she was one of Hammargren's confirmation students.[8][9]
The sale of the Lagerlöf family'sMårbacka estate in 1884 had a serious impact on her development. Selma's father is said to have been an alcoholic, something she rarely discussed.[10] Her father did not want Selma to continue her education or be involved with the women's movement. Later in life, she bought back her father's estate with the money she received for her Nobel Prize.[11] Lagerlöf lived there for the rest of her life.[12]
Lagerlöf studied at theHögre lärarinneseminariet in Stockholm from 1882 to 1885. She worked as a country schoolteacher at a high school for girls inLandskrona from 1885 to 1895.[13] Through her studies at the Royal Women's Superior Training Academy inStockholm, Lagerlöf reacted against the realism of contemporary Swedish-language writers such asAugust 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 in the magazineIdun, and won a publishing contract for the whole book. At first, her writing only received mild reviews from critics. Once a popular critic,Georg Brandes, had given her positive reviews of the Danish translation, her popularity soared.[14] She received financial support fromFredrika Limnell, who wished to enable her to concentrate on her writing.[15]
A visit in 1900 to theAmerican Colony inJerusalem became the inspiration for Lagerlöf's book by that name.[16] The royal family and the Swedish Academy gave her substantial financial support to continue her passion.[17]Jerusalem was also acclaimed by critics, who began comparing her toHomer andShakespeare, so that she became a popular figure both in Sweden and abroad.[3] By 1895, she gave up her teaching to devote herself to her writing. With the help of proceeds fromGösta Berling's Saga and a scholarship and grant, she made two journeys, which were largely instrumental in providing material for her next novel. With her close friendSophie Elkan, she traveled to Italy, and also toPalestine and Egypt.[18][19] In Italy, a legend of a Christ Child figure that had been replaced with a false version inspired Lagerlöf's novelAntikrists mirakler (The Miracles of the Antichrist). Set inSicily, the novel explores the interplay between Christian and socialist moral systems. However, most of Lagerlöf's stories were set in Värmland.[20]
In 1902, Lagerlöf was asked by the National Teachers' Association to write a geography book for children. She wroteNils Holgerssons underbara resa genom Sverige (The Wonderful Adventures of Nils), a novel about a boy from the southernmost part of Sweden, who had been shrunk to the size of a thumb and who travelled on the back of a goose across the country. Lagerlöf mixed historical and geographical facts about the provinces of Sweden with the tale of the boy's adventures, detailing how he managed to return home and was restored to his normal size.[10] The novel is one of Lagerlöf's most well-known books, and it has been translated into more than 30 languages.[21]
Lagerlöf with her friend and literary assistantValborg Olander. Elkan was jealous of the relationship.
She moved toFalun in 1897 and metValborg Olander, who became her literary assistant and friend, but Elkan's jealousy of Olander was a complication in the relationship. Olander, a teacher, was also active in the growingwomen's suffrage movement in Sweden. Selma Lagerlöf herself was active as a speaker for theNational Association for Women's Suffrage, which was beneficial for the organisation because of the great respect which surrounded Lagerlöf, and she spoke at the International Suffrage Congress in Stockholm in June 1911, where she gave the opening address, as well as at the victory party of the Swedish suffrage movement after women suffrage had been granted in May 1919.[22]
Selma Lagerlöf was a friend of the German-Jewish writerNelly Sachs. Shortly before her death in 1940, Lagerlöf intervened with the Swedish royal family to secure the release of Sachs and Sachs' aged mother from Nazi Germany, on the last flight from Germany to Sweden, and their lifelong asylum in Stockholm.[23]
In 1894, she met the Swedish writerSophie Elkan, who became her friend and companion.[24] Over many years, Elkan and Lagerlöf critiqued each other's work. Lagerlöf wrote that Elkan strongly influenced her work and that she often disagreed sharply with the direction Lagerlöf wanted to take in her books. Selma's letters to Sophie were published in 1993, titledDu lär mig att bli fri ('You Teach me to be Free').[14] Beginning in the 1900s, she also had a close relationship withValborg Olander, who had some influence as a literary adviser, agent and secretary of sorts as well; their correspondence was published in 2006 asEn riktig författarhustru ('A Proper Writer's Wife').[25] There appears to have been a strong rivalry between Elkan and Olander. Both relationships were close, emotional, exclusive and described in terms suggestive of love, the boundary between expressions of friendship and love being somewhat vague at the time. Still, it is primarily the surviving correspondence with Olander that contains passages implying decidedly erotic and physical passion, even though Lagerlöf took care to destroy many of the letters she found too risky.[26] Homosexual relations between women were taboo as well as illegal in Sweden at the time, so none of the women involved ever revealed such a thing publicly.[24]
In 1919, Lagerlöf sold all the movie rights to all of her as-yet unpublished works to Swedish Cinema Theatre (Swedish:Svenska Biografteatern), so over the years, many movie versions of her works were made. During the era of Swedish silent cinema, her works were used in film byVictor Sjöström,Mauritz Stiller, and other Swedish film makers.[27] 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 silent cinema. The1921 film adaptation ofThy Soul Shall Bear Witness! (Körkarlen) was critically acclaimed and influential within cinema.Jerusalem was adapted in 1996 into the internationally acclaimedfilm of the same name.[28]
On 10 December 1909,[29] Selma Lagerlöf won the Nobel Prize "in appreciation of thelofty idealism, vivid imagination, and spiritual perception that characterize her writings",[30] but the decision was preceded by harsh internal power struggle within theSwedish Academy, the body that awards the Nobel Prize in literature.[31] During her acceptance speech, she remained humble and told a fantastic story of her father, as she 'visited him in heaven'. In the story, she asks her father for help with the debt she owes and her father explains the debt is from all the people who supported her throughout her career.[10] In 1904, the academy had awarded her its great gold medal, and in 1914, she also became a member of the academy. For both the academy membership and her Nobel literature prize, she was the first woman to be so honored.[13] She was awarded theLitteris et Artibus in 1909 and theIllis quorum in 1926.[32] In 1991, she became the first woman to be depicted on a Swedish banknote, when the first 20-kronor note was released.[33]
In 1907, she received the honorary degree ofdoctor of letters (filosofie hedersdoktor) from Uppsala University.[34] In 1928, she received an honorary doctorate from theUniversity of Greifswald'sFaculty of Arts. At the start ofWorld War II[clarification needed], she sent her Nobel Prize medal and gold medal from the Swedish Academy to the government of Finland to help raise money to fight theSoviet Union.[35] The Finnish government was so touched that it raised the necessary money by other means and returned her medal to her.[citation needed]
A flight of steps connecting two streets is named after her in Jerusalem, Israel.
Two hotels are named after her in Östra Ämtervik in Sunne, and her home,Mårbacka, is preserved as a museum.[citation needed]
Original Swedish-language publications are listed primarily.[36][37]
The popularity of Lagerlöf in the United States was due in part to Velma Swanston Howard, or V. S. Howard (1868–1937, a suffragette and Christian scientist)[38] – who was an early believer in her appeal to Americans and who carefully translated many of her books.[13]
Gösta Berlings saga (1891; novel). Translated asThe Story of Gösta Berling (Pauline Bancroft Flach, 1898),Gösta Berling's Saga (V.S. Howard and Lillie Tudeer, 1898),The Story of Gösta Berling (Robert Bly, 1962),The Saga of Gosta Berling (Paul Norlen, 2009)
Drottningar i Kungahälla (1899; short stories). Translated asThe Queens of Kungahälla and Other Sketches From a Swedish Homestead (Jessie Bröchner, 1901; C. Field, 1917)
Kristuslegender (1904; short stories). Translated asChrist Legends and Other Stories (V. S. Howard, 1908)
Nils Holgerssons underbara resa genom Sverige (1906–07; children's novel). Translated asThe Wonderful Adventures of Nils (V.S. Howard, 1907; Richard E. Oldenburg, 1967) andFurther Adventures of Nils (V.S. Howard, 1911)
En saga om en saga och andra sagor (1908; short stories). Translated asThe Girl from the Marsh Croft (V.S. Howard, 1910) andGirl from the Marsh Croft and Other Stories (edited by Greta Anderson, 1996)
Hem och stat: Föredrag vid rösträttskongressen den 13 juni 1911 (1911; non-fiction). Translated asHome and State: Being an Address Delivered at Stockholm at the Sixth Convention of the International Woman Suffrage Alliance, June 1911 (C. Ursula Holmstedt, 1912)
Liljecronas hem (1911; novel). Translated asLiliecrona's Home (Anna Barwell, 1913)
Kavaljersnoveller (1918; short stories), with illustrations byEinar Nerman
Zachris Topelius utveckling och mognad (1920; non-fiction), biography ofZachris Topelius
Mårbacka (1922; memoir). Translated asMarbacka: The Story of a Manor (V.S. Howard, 1924) andMemories of Marbacka (Greta Andersen, 1996) – named for the estateMårbacka where Lagerlöf was born and raised
The Ring trilogy – published in 1931 asThe Ring of the Löwenskölds, containing the Martin and Howard translations,LCCN31-985
Löwensköldska ringen (1925; novel). Translated asThe General's Ring (Francesca Martin, 1928) and asThe Löwensköld Ring (Linda Schenck, 1991)
Charlotte Löwensköld (1925; novel). Translated asCharlotte Löwensköld (V.S. Howard)
Anna Svärd (1928; novel). Translated asAnna Svärd (V.S. Howard, 1931)
En Herrgårdssägen: Skådespel i fyra akter (1929; play), based on 1899 workEn herrgårdssägen
Mors porträtt och andra berättelser (1930; short stories)
Ett barns memoarer: Mårbacka (1930; memoir). Translated asMemories of My Childhood: Further Years at Mårbacka (V.S. Howard, 1934)
Dagbok för Selma Ottilia Lovisa Lagerlöf (1932; memoir). Translated asThe Diary of Selma Lagerlöf (V.S. Howard, 1936)
Höst (1933; short stories). Translated asHarvest (Florence and Naboth Hedin, 1935)
Julberättelser (1936)
Gösta Berlings saga: Skådespel i fyra akter med prolog och epilog efter romanen med samma namn (1936)
Från skilda tider: Efterlämnade skrifter (1943–45)
^abForsas-Scott, Helena (1997).Swedish Women's Writing 1850–1995. London: The Athlone Press. p. 63.ISBN0485910039.
^H. G. L. (1916), "Miss Lagerlöf at Marbacka", inHenry Goddard Leach (ed.),The American-Scandinavian review, vol. 4, American-Scandinavian Foundation, p. 36
^abLagerlöf, Selma; Schoolfield, George (2009).The Saga of Gösta Berling. New York: Penguin Classics.ISBN9781101140482.
^Hedwall, Barbro (2011). Susanna Eriksson Lundqvist. red.Vår rättmätiga plats. Om kvinnornas kamp för rösträtt. (Our Rightful Place. About women's struggle for suffrage)Albert Bonniers Förlag.ISBN978-91-7424-119-8 (Swedish)
^"Nelly Sachs".www.nobel-winners.com. Retrieved10 December 2018.
^Furhammar, Leif (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.
^Elley, Derek (23 September 1996)."Jerusalem". Retrieved22 August 2024.
^Lagerlöf, Selma (10 December 1909)."Banquet Speech". Nobel Prize. Retrieved9 December 2016.
Aldrich, Robert; Wotherspoon, Garry, eds. (2002).Who's Who in Gay and Lesbian History from Antiquity to World War II (2 ed.). London: Routledge.ISBN0-415-15983-0.
Berendsohn, Walter A.Selma Lagerlöf: Her Life and Work. (adapted from the German by George F. Timpson) London: Nicholson & Watson, 1931.
De Noma, Elizabeth Ann.Multiple Melodrama: The Making and Remaking of Three Selma Lagerlöf Narratives in the Silent Era and the 1940s. Ann Arbor, Mich.: UMI Research Press, 2000.
Edström, Vivi.Selma Lagerlöf. (trans. by Barbara Lide) Boston: Twayne Publishers, 1984.
Madler, Jennifer Lynn.The Literary Response of German-language Authors to Selma Lagerlöf. Urbana, Ill.: University of Illinois, 1998.
Nelson, Anne Theodora.The Critical Reception of Selma Lagerlöf in France. Evanston, Ill., 1962.
Olson-Buckner, Elsa.The Epic Tradition in Gösta Berlings Saga. Brooklyn, N.Y.: Theodore Gaus, 1978.
Vrieze, Folkerdina Stientje de.Fact and Fiction in the Autobiographical Works of Selma Lagerlof. Assen, Netherlands: Van Gorcum, 1958.
Wägner, Elin.Selma Lagerlöf I (1942) andSelma Lagerlöf II. (1943)[2]
Watson, Jennifer.Swedish Novelist Selma Lagerlöf, 1858–1940, and Germany at the Turn of the Century: O du Stern ob meinem Garten. Lewiston, New York: Edwin Mellen Press, 2004.
