Selma Lagerlöf

Selma Lagerlöf

Selma Ottilia Lovisa Lagerlöf born 20th november 1858 on Mårbacka, dead 16th mars 1940. She was a very successful and esteemed writer. Selma Lagerlöf was 33 years old when her debut novel Gösta Berlings saga published in 1891. She was awarded the Nobel Prize in literature 1909. Selma Lagerlöf was the first woman in the Swedish Academy. 

Formative years:  Selma Lagerlöf was born in 1858 at the mansion Marbacka as the fifth child of six to Lieutenant Erik Gustaf Lagerlof. She was born with a hip injury. When Lagerlöf was three and a half years old, towards the end of 1860, she became sick and paralyzed in both legs. This disappeared as suddenly as it had come, but her childhood was not easy because she could not play with other children. But she was a gifted child and liked to read. When she was seven years old she decided to become a writer.

Selma Lagerlöfs death: Thursday evening, March 7, 1940, she sat with her sister, when she began to feel weak and tired. At night, she became violently ill and lay unconscious in bed for a week. Saturday morning at 7:25 on March 16 Selma Lagerlof died. She was 81 years old. She was buried in East Ämtervik on Easter Eve.