Selma Ottilia Louisa Lagerlöf (1858-1940) was a writer, politician, entrepreneur and women's campaigner. She was the first woman to receive the Nobel Prize for Literature and was a member of the Swedish Academy
. Lagerlöf books have been translated into 60 languages and continue to be published worldwide. In honor of Selma Lagerlöf, a volcano crater on Venus, streets in Hamburg and Jerusalem is named, notebooks and posters with her image are sold in Sweden, and in 1991 a 20 kroons note with her portrait and the first lines from the "Saga of Josta Birling", named "rural" by the people, was issued.
Chronology
1891 - The Joste Birling Saga novel
1894: A collection of stories called "The Invisible Ties"
1897 - The Wonders of the Antichrist
1899: The Queen of Kungayella
1899 - The Story of the Old Manor
1901-1902 - The novel "Jerusalem"
1904 - "Mr. Arne's Money"
1904: The Legends of Christ
1906-1907 - "The amazing journey of Niels Holgersson with wild geese in Sweden"
1908 - autobiographical novel "The Tale of a Fairy Tale"
1911 - The House of Liljekroon
1912 - The story "The Woman"
1914 - The Emperor of Portugal novel
1915-1921: A collection of stories by Trolls and Men
1918 - The Exile novel
1922-1932 - autobiographical trilogy about Morbacca
1925-1928 - The Löwenschöld trilogy
Childhood in Morbacca, paralysis and miraculous healing
Previous.
Selma Lagerlöf was born in the Morbacca family estate in the western province of Vermland. The family of Lieutenant Eric Gustav Lagerlöf and Elisabeth Louisa Walroth's teacher had six children: sons Daniel and Johan, daughters Anna, Johann (died when she was two), Selma and younger Gerda. Close relations with Anna and Gerda Selma will last a lifetime. Already in her early childhood, she wrote poems and fairy tales of a stack of paper: in one of the novellas in the collection of "Trolls and People", she writes that she decided to become a writer, at the age of seven, inspired by the novel by Mein Reed "Oceola, the leader of the Seminoles.
A romantic idea of the beautiful and terrible formed in the future writer quite early: a grandmother and aunt told the children local tales and legends, which later reflected in the books of Lagerlöf. When Selma was three and a half years old, she had a paralysis and spent the next few years staying at home. She was taken care of by a nanny named Big Kaisa, who carried Selma in her arms until she had a special trolley in which to move around on her own. The story of the miraculous healing is described in Morbacca's memoir book on childhood. Once the Lagerlöf family had a rest at sea. Once a ship docked to the shore, where, according to rumors, there lived a bird of paradise. The family went to see it. First, Selma was lifted up to the deck. Not knowing that the girl was paralyzed, the young woman suggested she go down to the hold where the cage was. At first Selma followed him with a machine gun, and when she saw the bird (it turned out to be a scarecrow), she climbed into a chair to get a good look at it. It was only when the rest of the family came down to the hold that it became clear that the girl had recovered.
Together with her brothers and sisters, Lagerlöf received her home schooling and studied English and French. In the evenings, the children were read aloud. Father's birthday was marked by performances, pranks, songs and reading poems.
In 1861, on the initiative of the Swedish Riksdag A teacher's seminary opened in Stockholm with courses for unmarried women, who were able to obtain a diploma on entry to enable them to work as teachers in private girls' schools. Women were given new perspectives, the opportunity to graduate from university, get a profession and support themselves.
In 1867 Selma came to Stockholm to cure the remaining limp from her illness. In the autumn of 1881, against his father's will, he entered the higher teacher's courses. Having finished them in 1884, Selma got a job as a teacher in Landskroon. All this time she continued to write, mainly poems and sonnets, which were published from time to time. "...Any piece of paper she saw filled with poetry and prose, plays and novels. When she did not write, she just wandered in anticipation of happiness," she writes about herself in the third person in the autobiographical novel "The Tale of a Tale".
A 20 crowns banknote with a portrait of Selma Lagerlöf and the first lines of the Joste Burling Saga
notescollector.eu
One day at breakfast Selma's father told a story about his Vermland friend. He sang beautifully, composed poems and music. No woman could resist him, people forgave him any nonsense. He spent most of his life as a governor and then became a pastor. The writer often said that this man - the prototype of the protagonist of the "Saga of Josta Burling". Another prototype, as it follows from the notes in the margins of the manuscript, was the alcoholic pastor Edward Emil Ekström, with whom Selma's aunt was in love. Another theory is that Josta Birling was written off by the writer's father.
For several years Selma d