Maya Angelou
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Photograph by Henry B. Goodwin, c. 1917, Uppsala University Library (Alvin), via Wikimedia Commons (public domain) · Wikimedia Commons file 'Selma Lagerlof by Goodwin 1917.png' (Uppsala University Library, Alvin collection): a signed studio portrait photograph of Selma Lagerlof standing in a dark robe, made around 1917 by the Swedish photographer Henry B. Goodwin (1878-1931); original 3647 x 4576 pixels, downscaled to 956 x 1200 with no cropping. Public domain because the photographer died in 1931 and Swedish copyright had expired long before 1996, so it was never restored in the United States; the library's own item page could not be opened, so its stated terms were not checked. · Public domain (photographer died 1931)
Trait Constellation
Key Achievements
Her debut novel Gosta Berling's Saga (1891) broke with the prevailing realism of its day, and the 1909 Nobel Prize in Literature, awarded for her 'lofty idealism, vivid imagination and spiritual perception', made her the first woman to receive that prize.
Her novel Jerusalem (1901-02), based on a group of Swedish peasants who emigrated to the Holy Land, and the school reader Nils Holgerssons underbara resa genom Sverige (1906-07), her most widely read work abroad, are the other pillars of her reputation.
She joined the Swedish Academy in 1914 and remained a member until her death in 1940, and used her prize money to buy back the family estate Marbacka, which her will preserved as a memorial home.
Moments That Reveal Them
For Jerusalem she did not rely on a newspaper item about peasants who had emigrated to the Holy Land but travelled to their home parish and to Jerusalem to study the story.
This is consistent with a commitment to grounding imaginative work in first-hand research. Mastery Orientation
After sharply divided reviews of her debut, she argued that almost everything in the book had a basis in reality, and the critical attacks left her unsure and tentative for some years.
This is consistent with a defensive early response to hostile criticism, though she kept writing and experimenting. Conflict Tolerance
Turning Points
In 1895, after a decade teaching at the girls' school in Landskrona, she gave up teaching to live on her writing, helped by support from the royal family and the Swedish Academy.
This is consistent with a long commitment to writing that outlasted a mixed early reception. Persistence
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Sources
- Selma Lagerlof (Q44519), verified live via the Wikidata API (2026-10-31): label 'Selma Lagerlof', description 'Swedish writer (1858-1940)', born 20 November 1858, died 16 March 1940, Korean label present. Orientation only; not used as support for any row.
- Wikipedia, 'Selma Lagerlof', fetched for orientation (dates, Academy membership, the existence of her suffrage speeches). Orientation only; never counted as support for any row.
- NobelPrize.org, 'Selma Lagerlof - Biographical' (the biography written at the time of the 1909 award and republished in Nobel Lectures), read in full: trained as a teacher, taught at the girls' secondary school in Landskrona from 1885, published nothing until a 1890 weekly's prize competition, Gosta Berlings Saga (1891) went unnoticed until its Danish translation was acclaimed, in 1895 support from the royal family and the Swedish Academy encouraged her to give up teaching, then Jerusalem (1901-02), Nils Holgersson (1906) and the later trilogy and Marbacka memoirs. CANONICAL SIGNIFICANCE SOURCE: the prize body's own contemporaneous account; favourable by nature.
- NobelPrize.org, 'Selma Lagerlof - Facts' (2026), read in full: gives the prize motivation ('lofty idealism, vivid imagination and spiritual perception'), says her debut novel broke away from the then-prevailing realism and naturalism, that her writing is rooted in folk tales and legends of her home district, and that the prize money let her buy back the family estate Marbacka. Institutional summary, favourable by nature.
- NobelPrize.org, presentation speech for the 1909 Nobel Prize in Literature, read in full: a contemporary account for the Swedish Academy of why she was chosen, noting that Gosta Berlings Saga broke with the 'false realism' of the time yet was criticised severely by some, praising Jerusalem and The Girl from the Marsh Croft, and naming the Academy's gold medal of 1904. Speech by a member of the body that chose her, so admiring and not independent of the award.
- NobelPrize.org, list of women Nobel Prize laureates, read: chronological list in which Selma Lagerlof (Literature, 1909) is the earliest woman shown for the Literature prize, with later literature laureates such as Grazia Deledda (1926) following. Used only to support the statement that she was the first woman awarded the Literature prize.
- Svenskt kvinnobiografiskt lexikon, 'Selma Ottilia Lovisa Lagerlof' (article by Lisbeth Stenberg, 2018; in Swedish), read in full: a scholarly biography of her path from the Landskrona teaching post to full-time writing, the stylistic break of Gosta Berlings saga from 1880s realism, the harsh reviews from Carl David af Wirsen and Karl Warburg and the support of Georg Brandes, her field research for Jerusalem, the long preparation and travels for Nils Holgersson, the buying back of Marbacka, her membership of the Swedish Academy from 1914 and that she never stopped writing. Independent scholarly lexicon; its political and personal-life parts were not used.
- Svenskt biografiskt lexikon, 'Selma O L Lagerlof' (article by Ying Toijer-Nilsson, 1977-79; in Swedish), read in full: the national biographical dictionary's entry, with her career dates and honours (Swedish Academy member from 1914), the observation that she habitually worked up modest material imaginatively, her trips to Nas and Jerusalem for the novel, the thorough rewrite of its second part for the 1909 edition, and how the harsh criticism of Wirsen, set against Brandes's praise, made her known but also unsure and tentative. Independent scholarly reference; some personal-life remarks were not used.
- Marbacka foundation site, 'Entreprenoren' page (in Swedish), read in full: describes how she ran the estate commercially after returning, with an apple orchard, kitchen and herb gardens, a shop, a mechanised farm and, for a period, the oat-flour company Marbacka Havremjol (sold in Stockholm and exported to the United States), which did not become the success she had hoped, after which she added a bakery. Estate-foundation page named for her, so self-affiliated and admiring; used only for dated activities.