Selma Ottilia Lovisa Lagerlöf (/ˈlɑːɡərlɜːf, -lɜːv/, US also /-lʌv, -ləv/, 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. In 1914, she was the first woman to be granted a membership of the Swedish Academy.
The Transatlantic Review (often styled the transatlantic review) was an influential monthly literary magazine edited by Ford Madox Ford in 1924. The magazine was based in Paris but was published in London by Gerald Duckworth and Company.
Although it published only 12 issues—one in each month in 1924—the magazine had an influential impact on early 20th-century English literature by publishing works such as an early extract from James Joyce's Finnegans Wake. The magazine also contained works by Djuna Barnes, Jean Cassou, H.D., Ernest Hemingway, Selma Lagerlöf, Jean Rhys, Gertrude Stein, and Baroness Elsa von Freytag-Loringhoven. The magazine was funded by John Quinn, who had been persuaded by Ezra Pound to give money to Ford for the publication of a literary magazine. Ernest Hemingway was the guest editor of the August 1924 edition.
The 1909 Nobel Prize in Literature was awarded to the Swedish author Selma Lagerlöf (1858–1940) "in appreciation of the lofty idealism, vivid imagination and spiritual perception that characterize her writings." She became the first woman and first Swede to be awarded the prize.
Scandinavian literature, also referred to as Nordic literature, comprises literature written in the languages of the Nordic countries of Northern Europe. The Nordic countries include Denmark, Finland, Iceland, Norway (including Svalbard), and Sweden, as well as the associated autonomous territories of Åland, the Faroe Islands, and Greenland. The majority of these nations and regions use North Germanic languages, in addition to Finnish, Saami languages and Greenlandic. Although the majority of Finns speak a Uralic language, Finnish history and literature are clearly interrelated with those of both Sweden and Norway who have shared control of various areas and who have substantial Sami populations/influences.
These peoples have produced an important and influential literature. Henrik Ibsen, a Norwegian playwright, was largely responsible for the popularity of modern realistic drama in Europe, with plays like The Wild Duck and A Doll's House. Nobel Prizes in Literature, itself a Scandinavian award, have been awarded to Selma Lagerlöf, Verner von Heidenstam, Karl Adolph Gjellerup, Henrik Pontoppidan, Knut Hamsun, Sigrid Undset, Erik Axel Karlfeldt, Frans Eemil Sillanpää, Johannes Vilhelm Jensen, Pär Lagerkvist, Halldór Laxness, Nelly Sachs, Eyvind Johnson, Harry Martinson, Tomas Tranströmer, and Jon Fosse.