Selma Lagerlöf (20 November 1858 – 16 March 1940) was a Swedish novelist who won the Nobel Prize in Literature in 1909. She was the first Swedish writer to win the Nobel Prize, which began to be awarded in 1901. In 1914, Selma became a member of the Nobel Academy, which awards the Nobel Prizes, which her country, Sweden, adopted.

Selma was the fifth child in her family of six children. She was born in 1858 in the mountainous region of Marbacka in a village in the province of Värmland (on the Swedish-Norwegian border) in cold northern Sweden. She began her life as a teacher for ten years in the town of Landskrona between 1885 and 1895. Her name first shone in the literary world after she published her first novel, The Saga of Gösta Berling, in 1891, which heralded the Romantic renaissance in Swedish literature.

By 1895, Selma Lyerlöf had decided to leave her teaching career and devote herself to literature. She made a trip to Palestine at the turn of the twentieth century, staying in Jerusalem and upon her return to her country she published a book containing her impressions of this unique part of the world. Among her most famous works are “Nils Holgersson’s Wonderful Journey Through Sweden” (1906-1907), “Jerusalem” (1901-1902), “Invisible Connections” (1894), “The Wonders of the Antichrist” (1897), “The King of Portugal” and “The Old House”.