LAGERLÖF, SELMA. – Swedish writer, born at Mårbacka on 20 November 1858, died there on 16 March 1940. Doctor honoris causa of the University of Uppsala in 1907, she was awarded the Nobel Prize in 1909 and in 1914 became a member of the Swedish Academy,
which until then had been closed to women. Together with V. von Heidenstam—her superior in art, though not in humanity—she was one of the principal representatives of the neo-Romantic idealist movement which, around 1890, opposed in Sweden, in the name of beauty and the values of the spirit, the realism that dominated literature and the materialism then triumphant everywhere.
Her fame is especially associated with the novel Gösta Berlings Saga (“The Saga of Gösta Berling,” Stockholm 1891), a poetic narrative of the legends of her native Värmland, which had filled the sad and imaginative childhood of the sickly girl. The collection of short stories Osyuliga länkar (“Invisible Bonds”) followed in 1894. Having then abandoned elementary-school teaching to devote herself exclusively to literary activity, L. also sought inspiration in distant lands: she thus wrote the novel Antikrists mirakler (“The Miracles of the Antichrist,” ibid. 1897), set in Sicily and partly inspired by the encyclical Rerum Novarum; and Jerusalem (2 vols., ibid. 1899–1900), whose protagonists were a group of Swedish peasants transplanted to Palestine as a result of a wave of religious fanaticism and sustained in their difficult new existence by absolute faith. Among her other works are the romantic En herrgerdssägen (“Legend of a Manor,” ibid. 1899) and Drottningar i Kungahälla (“The Queens at Kungohälla,” ibid. 1899), the candid Christuslegender (“Legends of Christ,” ibid. 1904), and the sombre historical novel Herr Arnes penningarna (“Arne’s Money,” ibid. 1904). Known to every Swede from childhood is Nils Holgersson underbara resa genom Sverige (“The Wonderful Journey of Nils Holgersson through Sweden,” ibid. 1906–1907); this was followed by En saga om en saga (“A Legend about a Legend,” ibid. 1908), Liljecronas Hem (“Liljecrona’s Home,” ibid. 1911), the haunting tale Körkarlen (“The Charioteer of Death,” ibid. 1912), and the restrained novel Keisarn av Portugallien (“The Emperor of Portugallia,” ibid. 1914). Works with a thesis, defending human ideals, are: Troll och människor (“Trolls and Men,” ibid. 1915); Bannlyst (“Exiled,” ibid. 1918), while connected with her native land are Märbacka (ibid. 1922) and Löwensköld ring (“The Löwensköld Ring,” ibid. 1925–28).