Selma Lagerlöf (1858-1940) was born in Östra Emterwik, Värmland, Sweden. Her father was a serviceman. She was brought up on Mårbacka, the family estate, which she did not leave until 1881, when she went to a teachers’ college at Stockholm. In 1885 she became a teacher at the girls’ secondary school in Landskrona. She had been writing poetry ever since she was a child, but she did not publish anything until 1890, when a Swedish weekly gave her the first prize in a literary competition and published excerpts from the book which was to be her first and most popular work. Gösta Berlings Saga was published in 1891, but went unnoticed until it’s Danish translation received wide critical acclaim and paved the way for the book’s lasting success in Sweden and elsewhere.
In 1895 financial support from the royal family and the Swedish Academy encouraged her to abandon teaching altogether. She travelled in Italy and wrote Antikrists mirakler (1897) [The Miracles of Antichrist], a novel set in Sicily. After several minor works she published Jerusalem (1901-1902) [The Holy City], a novel about Swedish peasants who emigrated to the Holy Land and whom she had visited in 1900. This work was her first immediate success. A book intended as a primer for elementary schools, became one of the most charming children’s books in any language: Nils Holgerssons underbara resa genom Sverige (1906) [The Wonderful Adventures of Nils].
The publication of her letters to her writer friend Sophie Elkan, Du lär mig att bli fri, 1992, published by Ying Toijer-Nilsson, disclosed to the world the hidden ardour behind her official image as an unmarried author whose sole passion was writing. Modern authors such as Sara Lidman and Kerstin Ekman have found inspiration in her prose, which has attracted new and large audiences through television and film, for example in Bille August’s film adaptation of Jerusalem, 1996, and in Per Olov Enquist’s play Billedmagerne, 1998.
She was an active voice for Women rights and was the Speaker of the National Association for Women’s Suffrage which helped in granting the woman suffrage in Sweden in 1919.
In 1909 when she received the Nobel Prize in Literature for her writing, idealism and imagination, it was preceded by harsh struggle from the Swedish Academy but she remained calm and in her acceptance speech told a fantastic story of her father, as she visited him in the heaven. She was later inducted as a member of the academy and was the first woman to win the academy membership. One of her story called “the rattrap” was included in our own Indian curriculum for the CBSE class 12th literature book - Flamingo. Selma Lagerlöf renewed narrative prose, inspired both by symbolism and modernism, became world-famous, and was translated into many languages. She received the Nobel Prize in 1909 and became a member of Svenska Akademien (The Swedish Academy) in 1914.
Though profound, none of her later works matched the power or success of her Gösta Berlings Saga. In the mid-twenties she published the historical trilogy: Löwensköldska Ringen (1925), Charlotte Löwensköld (1927), and Anna Svärd (1928) [The Ring of the Löwenskölds, 3 vols.]. She also published several volumes of reminiscences under the title Mårbacka (1922-32).
Her writing focuses on strategies for young women to survive physically, mentally, and morally in a patriarchal society, which is particularly evident in Herr Arnes penningar (1904; Eng. tr. The Treasure) Liljecronas hem, 1911, Körkarlen, 1912, Tösen från Stormyrtorpet (1913; Eng. tr. The Girl from Marsh Croft), Dunungen, 1914, Kejsaren av Portugallien (1914; Eng. tr. The Emperor of Portugallia), and in Löwensköldtrilogien (1925 and 1928; Eng. tr. Charlotte Löwensköld). Active in peace, territorial, environmental, and women’s issues, her novel Bannlyst (1918; Eng. tr. The Outcast), was an ardent appeal against war. Her last major work, Dagbok (1932; Eng. tr. The Diary of Selma Lagerlöf), completed her autobiographical series that includes Mårbacka (1922; Eng. tr. Mårbacka), and Ett barns memoarer, 1930.
After her father was declared insolvent, the Mårbacka estate was sold, but the Nobel Prize gave Selma Lagerlöf the opportunity to buy back her family home and she lived there for the rest of her life.
Selma Lagerlöf died on March 16, 1940.
Piece by- Ishta Kaushal
ishta020@gmail.com
About the Author:
Ishta is currently pursuing her Bachelors in Commerce (Honors) with Minors in English Literature from Daulat Ram College, University of Delhi. She comes from the hills of Shimla, which is where she took to reading really early on moulding her into the ardent reader that she is today. According to her it would be quite unfair on her part to call herself a feminist, if she couldn't contribute to a feminist community right in her college i.e. the Women’s Development Cell.
Comments