Lagerlöf, Selma (sĕl`mä lä`gərlöv), 1858–1940, Swedish novelist. Her native Värmland is the background for many of her excellent stories, which deal with peasant life. Novels include The Story of Gösta Berling (1891, tr. 1898), a romantic tale of a renegade priest, lyrical in style; Jerusalem (1901, tr. 1901–2); and a trilogy (1925–28) which was published in English as The Ring of the Lowenskolds (1931). Several of her works, often based on legends and sagas, served as the basis for early Swedish films. The short stories of The Wonderful Adventures of Nils (1906, tr. 1907) are classics of children's literature. She received the 1909 Nobel Prize in Literature, the first woman to be thus honored.

Bibliography

See biographies by H. A. Larsen (1936) and W. A. Berendsohn (1968); studies by V. Edström (1984) and B. Holm (1984).

Lagerlöf, Selma (Ottiliana Lovisa)

Selma Lagerlöf, 1909.

(credit: Courtesy of the Nobel Foundation, Stockholm)

(born Nov. 20, 1858, Mårbacka, Swed.—died March 16, 1940, Mårbacka) Swedish novelist. She was working as a schoolmistress when she wrote her first novel, Gösta Berlings saga (1891), a chronicle of life in her native Värmland. Later works include Jerusalem (1901–02), which established her as Sweden's foremost novelist, and The Wonderful Adventures of Nils and its sequel (1906–07), a geography reader for children in fantasy form. A naturally gifted storyteller, she rooted her work in legend and saga. In 1909 she became the first woman and the first Swedish writer to win the Nobel Prize for Literature.