Selma Lagerlöf.

The tales of Värmland filled Selma Lagerlöf’s childhood at Mårbacka, where she was born on November 20, 1858, to Elisabet Lovisa Wallroth and Erik Gustaf Lagerlöf. She studied at the Högre lärarinneseminariet in Stockholm, qualifying as a teacher. She later turned those regional narratives into novels.

Lagerlöf made her literary debut in 1891 with The Gösta Berling Saga, a romantic novel set in her native Värmland. The work ignited a wave of nationalist literature in Sweden during the 1890s. Her next major success, Jerusalem 1901-02, chronicled religious emigrants from Sweden to Palestine. In 1906, she published The Adventures of Nils Holgersson, a geography-themed children’s book that became Sweden’s most-read novel. She followed with The Emperor of Portugal 1914. For these works, she received an honorary doctorate from Uppsala University in 1907 and the Nobel Prize in Literature in 1909. In 1914, she was elected to the Swedish Academy.

At Mårbacka, the family estate in Värmland, Selma Lagerlöf spent most of her life. She never married and had no children. Her only sibling was her brother Daniel. After her father died, she managed the estate and incorporated the house into many stories. Mårbacka later became a museum, attracting thousands of visitors annually.

Selma Lagerlöf reshaped Swedish literature with her romantic nationalist style. Her novel Jerusalem earned her the Nobel Prize in Literature in 1909, the first woman to win that prize. The Adventures of Nils Holgersson remains Sweden’s most-read novel and has been adapted into films and animations. She was the first non-mythological woman to appear on a Swedish banknote. Her home Mårbacka is a museum visited by thousands of tourists each year, preserving her legacy.