Selma Lagerlöf  (1858 - 1940)

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Selma Lagerlöf's Words of Love and Wisdom by Selma Lagerlöf

Selma Lagerlöf (1858-1940) is one of Sweden’s best-loved storytellers. In 1909, she became the first woman – and the first Swede – to win the Nobel Prize for Literature. Her writings are among the treasures of world literature. Her subtle wit and wisdom sparkle with a romantic, legendary cast of characters.

"Why should love only be healed by love?" from "The Ball at Ekeby."

She neither loved nor hated…she understood them all. He that understands does not hate. Love is strong when it has gone through the fire of pain from "The Auction of Bjorne."

This new book includes selections from Lagerlöf's literary works representative of her keen observations, both the profound and the witty.

Invisible Links by Selma Lagerlöf

Unabiding passion is the theme running through this collection of short stories.Lagerlof's characrters share spiritual and deeply human longings. They long for love, for inspiration, for release from psychological torment-ultimately they seek an image of truth. Some find this vision only in death. Others lack courage and flee from their visions, becoming strangers in the worlds of their own making. Social relations are difficult, thorny. But in crucial moments of transformation, true selves come out of hiding-or they are taken by storm.

Anonymous Review:  Short Stories of the Swedish People

Selma Lagerlöf (1858-1940) is one of the most well-known literary figures to have come out of Sweden, particularly after she became the first woman to receive the prestigious Nobel Prize in Literature in 1909. As an avid supporter of causes such as women's rights and world peace, her thoughts and concerns are equally valid today.

Invisible Links is the first in a series of reprints of Selma Lagerlöf's works from Penfield Press. This collection of Lagerlöf's earlier short stories depicts the Swedish people, their lives and struggles, through glimpses into their souls. This updated edition is an abridged version of Pauline Bancroft Flach's 1899 translation, except "The Epitaph," that was included in the Swedish collection and translated by Jessie Brochner.

Selma Lagerlöf's storytelling includes elements of folk legends, fairy tales, and dreams. There are avenging ghosts and ghosts with good advice; there are tragic and happy endings. Her wise, compassionate voice narrates tales that are both dramatic and perplexing.

There are lighter stories. "Uncle Reuben" is a comic fable about the use of family legends to keep children in line. "Downie" is a love story set in springtime. And "Among the Climbing Roses" is about the insect friends to be found in the summer garden. Lively and intimate observations of the natural world are woven through all the stories, lending them an authentic beauty.

Lagerlöf explores the boundaries between illusion and reality, good and evil, the forces of life and destruction. Her stories do not come up with easy answers. What is certain is that the meanings human beings create, the links-or fetters-connecting them with the world, are nothing less than sacred. In Lagerlöf's fiction, this conviction becomes the lifeblood of the storyteller and reader alike. (Amazon.com)

Who was Selma Lagerlöf?

by Rawley Grau

During her lifetime, Selma Lagerlöf was one of the world's most celebrated writers. Still revered in her native Sweden, she was the first woman to win the Nobel Prize for Literature and the author of a beloved children's book. Contemporary biographers noted the unmarried writer's "noble friendships" with women, but it was not until Lagerlöf's letters were unsealed in 1991 – 51 years after her death, as she had stipulated – that the lesbian nature of these relationships came to light...

Selma, Valborg and Sophie:  A Domestic Triangle

Excerpt:

In a new book "Selma på Mårbacka" the journalist Lars Westman throws new light on the life of Selma Lagerlöf (1858-1940), author, Nobel Prize winner and member of The Swedish Academy.

The chapter "Beloved Valborg! Beloved Selma!" deals with the relationship between Selma Lagerlöf and the school-teacher Valborg Ohlander. "If anyone ever has written love-letters to each other it is Selma and Valborg" says Westman in the book.

Lagerlöf and Ohlander lived apart from each other much of the time, but Ohlander was often visiting the well-known author at her Mårbacka home. She typed many of Lagerlöf's manuscripts, answered letters etc. as Alice B. Toklas hade done for Gertrude Stein.

The two women's love for each other was complicated by Lagerlöf's friendship with the author Sophie Elkan. The two authors did a lot of travelling together, but Valborg was always present mentally. "You do not choose Valborg instead of me, do you?" wrote Elkan to Lagerlöf in 1901.

According to Westman, Lagerlöf's love for Elkan, which is also documented in a large number of letters, was only platonic, whereas the relationship with Ohlander included physical love. Westman is further convinced, that the two women wanted the world to know about their love. A lot of their most intimate correspondence was destroyed, but they left deliberately enough material for coming generations to know about the nature of their relationship. All of Lagerlöf's correspondence was however, for reasons we understand today, sealed until 1991, fifty years after her death...

Selma Ottiliana Lovisa Lagerlöf

By Petri Liukkonen

Excerpt:

Swedish novelist, whose work is rooted in legend and saga, and who in 1909 became the first woman writer to win the Nobel Prize for Literature. Lagerlöf turned away from the literary realism and wrote in a romantic and imaginative manner, vividly evoking the peasant life and landscape of Northern Sweden...

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