WRITER

Selma Lagerlöf

1858 - 1940

Photo of Selma Lagerlöf

Icon of person Selma Lagerlöf

Selma Ottilia Lovisa Lagerlöf (, US also , Swedish: [ˈsɛ̂lːma ˈlɑ̂ːɡɛˌɭøːv] ; 20 November 1858 – 16 March 1940) was a Swedish writer. She published her first novel, Gösta Berling's Saga, at the age of 33. She was the first woman to win the Nobel Prize in Literature, which she was awarded in 1909. Read more on Wikipedia

Since 2007, the English Wikipedia page of Selma Lagerlöf has received more than 875,798 page views. Her biography is available in 114 different languages on Wikipedia (up from 111 in 2019). Selma Lagerlöf is the 35th most popular writer (up from 87th in 2019), the 4th most popular biography from Sweden (up from 8th in 2019) and the most popular Swedish Writer.

Selma Lagerlöf is most famous for her novel, The Wonderful Adventures of Nils. The book tells the story of a boy, Nils, who sails with his grandfather to the North Pole and back.

Memorability Metrics

  • 880k

    Page Views (PV)

  • 81.25

    Historical Popularity Index (HPI)

  • 114

    Languages Editions (L)

  • 19.63

    Effective Languages (L*)

  • 3.27

    Coefficient of Variation (CV)

Notable Works

Nils Holgerssons underbara resa genom Sverige
Magic, Adventure and adventurers, Geese
A selfish little boy learns humility when he is made tiny by an elf and flies on a long trip with migratory geese.
1907
Gösta Berling's saga
1891
Invisible Links
1899
The Treasure
1925
Jerusalem
Fiction
1915
The story of Gösta Berling
1898
Jerusalem
Fiction, historical, general
2008
Invisible Links
1899
Gösta Berling's saga
Fiction, romance, general
1891
Jerusalem
Fiction, Sweden, fiction, Fiction, historical, general
1915
Nils Holgerssons underbara resa genom Sverige
Fairy tales, Fiction, Classic Literature
A selfish young boy learns humility when he is made small by an elf and flies on a long trip with wild geese.
1907
The Story Of Gosta Berling
Swedish fiction, Frykensjöarna (Sweden), Translations into English
<p>Set in the 1820s in central Sweden, <i>The Story of Gösta Berling</i> follows the saga of the titular character as he falls from the priesthood and is rescued by the owner of a local estate. Joining the other saved souls in the pensioners’ wing of the mansion, he embarks upon a series of larger-than-life stories that tell of adventure, revelry, romance and sadness.</p> <p><i>Gösta Berling</i> was the eventual Nobel Prize winner <a href="https://standardebooks.org/ebooks/selma-lagerlof">Selma Lagerlöf’s</a> first published novel, and was written as an entry to a magazine competition. The richly detailed landscapes of Värmland were drawn from her own upbringing there, and the local folk tales inspired many of the individual stories in the book. The novel was published in Swedish in 1891; this edition is based on the 1898 English translation by Pauline Bancroft Flach. In 1924 the story was made into a silent film, launching the career of Greta Garbo.</p>
1898
Invisible Links
1899
Nils Holgerssons underbara resa genom Sverige
Fairy tales, Fiction, Classic Literature
A selfish young boy learns humility when he is made small by an elf and flies on a long trip with wild geese.
1907
Jerusalem
Fiction, historical, general
2008
The Story Of Gosta Berling
Swedish fiction, Frykensjöarna (Sweden), Translations into English
<p>Set in the 1820s in central Sweden, <i>The Story of Gösta Berling</i> follows the saga of the titular character as he falls from the priesthood and is rescued by the owner of a local estate. Joining the other saved souls in the pensioners’ wing of the mansion, he embarks upon a series of larger-than-life stories that tell of adventure, revelry, romance and sadness.</p> <p><i>Gösta Berling</i> was the eventual Nobel Prize winner <a href="https://standardebooks.org/ebooks/selma-lagerlof">Selma Lagerlöf’s</a> first published novel, and was written as an entry to a magazine competition. The richly detailed landscapes of Värmland were drawn from her own upbringing there, and the local folk tales inspired many of the individual stories in the book. The novel was published in Swedish in 1891; this edition is based on the 1898 English translation by Pauline Bancroft Flach. In 1924 the story was made into a silent film, launching the career of Greta Garbo.</p>
1898
Jerusalem
Fiction, Sweden, fiction, Fiction, historical, general
1915
Gösta Berling's saga
Fiction, romance, general
1891

Among WRITERS

Among writers, Selma Lagerlöf ranks 35 out of 7,302. Before her are Denis Diderot, Agatha Christie, Horace, Ernest Hemingway, Alexandre Dumas, and Anne Frank. After her are Alexander Pushkin, Friedrich Schiller, H. P. Lovecraft, Charles Dickens, Hermann Hesse, and Charles Baudelaire.

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Contemporaries

Among people born in 1858, Selma Lagerlöf ranks 4. Before her are Max Planck, Émile Durkheim, and Giacomo Puccini. After her are Theodore Roosevelt, Rudolf, Crown Prince of Austria, Gustaf V of Sweden, Rudolf Diesel, Georg Simmel, Omar Mukhtar, Emmeline Pankhurst, and Giuseppe Peano. Among people deceased in 1940, Selma Lagerlöf ranks 2. Before her is Leon Trotsky. After her are F. Scott Fitzgerald, Paul Klee, Walter Benjamin, Neville Chamberlain, J. J. Thomson, Mikhail Bulgakov, Robert Wadlow, Nikolai Yezhov, Carl Bosch, and Peter Behrens.

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In Sweden

Among people born in Sweden, Selma Lagerlöf ranks 4 out of 1,879. Before her are Carl Linnaeus (1707), Alfred Nobel (1833), and Ingmar Bergman (1918). After her are Astrid Lindgren (1907), Gustavus Adolphus of Sweden (1594), Anders Celsius (1701), Tycho Brahe (1546), Carl XVI Gustaf of Sweden (1946), August Strindberg (1849), Gustaf VI Adolf of Sweden (1882), and Charles XII of Sweden (1682).

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Among WRITERS In Sweden

Among writers born in Sweden, Selma Lagerlöf ranks 1. After her are Astrid Lindgren (1907), August Strindberg (1849), Tomas Tranströmer (1931), Pär Lagerkvist (1891), Henning Mankell (1948), Eyvind Johnson (1900), Verner von Heidenstam (1859), Harry Martinson (1904), Stieg Larsson (1954), Ellen Key (1849), and Per Olov Enquist (1934).

Swedish born Writers

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