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December 9, 2021

Almanac of Story Tellers: Selma Lagerlof

  Every day brings a new story.  And each day contributes to the art of story telling -- in prose and poetry, in music, on the stage, on the screen, and, of course, in books

Today is the story of December 10th.

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    It is the 344th day of the year, leaving 21 days in 2021.

    On the date in 1909, Selma Lagerlöf became the first woman to win the Nobel Prize in Literature.

    The Swedish novelist's first work was sta Berling's Saga, a novel she wrote for a literary competition in the Swedish weekly Idun in 1890. The book, described as magical realism, takes the form of a Icelandic saga. It tells the story of Gösta Berling, a defrocked priest who was saved from freezing to death by the Mistress of Ekeby, who gives him a place to live in return for his servitude. He later leads a revolt against her, and becomes the leading spirit for the rest of his band. 

    The novel was published in 1891, and several years later received critical and popular acclaim after it was translated into Danish. 1n 1924, it was made into a Swedish silent film starring Greta Garbo.

    Lagerlöf, who was a school teacher when she wrote the novel, received funding from the Swedish royal family and the Swedish Academy -- which awards the Nobel Prize -- and begin travelling and writing full time. (Much of the background for this article comes from the Swedish Academy website.)

    Her other works included Antikrists Mirakler (The Miracles of Antichrist), and Jerusalem, a novel about Swedish peasants who emigrated to the Holy Land.  

    She died at her ancestral home in Värmland, Sweden, in 1940 at the age of 81.

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