1909 Nobel Prize in Literature

20px 1909 Nobel Prize in Literature Selma Lagerlöf Swedish Academy 1901 https://www.nobelprize.org/prizes/literature/1909/summary/ 1909 laureate Atelje Jaeger - Selma Lagerlöf 1928.jpeg "in appreciation of the lofty idealism, vivid imagination and spiritual perception that characterize her writings." 11 November 1909 (announcement) 10 December 1909 (ceremony) Stockholm, Sweden 1908 Nobel Prize in Literature 1910 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."The Nobel Prize in Literature 1909 nobelprize.org She became the first woman and first Swede to be awarded the prize. Laureate 160px|thumb|left|Cover of The Wonderful Adventures of Nils published 1906 and illustrated by Mary Hamilton Frye.Selma Lagerlöf Selma Lagerlöf's authorship is deeply rooted in folk tales, legends, and stories from her home district in Värmland County, Sweden. Her début novel, Gösta Berling's Saga (1891), broke away from the then-prevailing realism and naturalism and is characterized by a vivid imagination. Even so, her works provide realistic depictions of people's circumstances, ideas, and social lives during the 19th-century religious revival. Lagerlöf wrote in prose and her stories characterized by a captivating descriptive power and their language by purity and clarity.Selma Lagerlöf – Facts nobelprize.org Among her significant novels include Jerusalem (1901–02), Nils Holgerssons underbara resa genom Sverige ("The Wonderful Adventures of Nil", 1907), Körkarlen ("Thy Soul Shall Bear Witness!", 1912), and The Ring of the Löwenskölds (1925–28).Selma Lagerlöf britannica.com In 1914, Lagerlöf became a member of the Swedish Academy, the first woman to be so honored.Lagerlof, Ottilia Lovisa Selma She nominated Georg Brandes for the 1920 and 1922 Nobel prize. Deliberations Nominations Selma Lagerlöf received 28 nominations since 1904. Her highest number of nominations (11 nominations) were for the 1909 prize with which she was awarded eventually.Nomination archive – Selma Lagerlöf nobelprize.org In total, the Nobel committee received 38 nominations for 21 writers including Angelo de Gubernatis, Maurice Maeterlinck (awarded in 1911), Iwan Gilkin, and Jaroslav Vrchlický. Seven of the nominees were nominated for the first time including Ernest Lavisse, Verner von Heidenstam (awarded in 1916), Martin Greif, and Émile Verhaeren.Nomination archive – 1909 nobelprize.org The authors Gustaf af Geijerstam, Innokenty Annensky, Jakub Bart-Ćišinski, Rosa Nouchette Carey, Euclides da Cunha, John Davidson, Amalia Domingo Soler, George Manville Fenn, Clyde Fitch, Jacob Gordin, Sarah Orne Jewett, Cesare Lombroso, Luis Alfredo Martínez, Clorinda Matto de Turner, Catulle Mendès, Alfredo Oriani, Signe Rink, John Millington Synge, Renée Vivien, Rudolf von Gottschall, Detlev von Liliencron, Ernst von Wildenbruch, and Egerton Ryerson Young died in 1909 without having been nominated for the prize. Official list of nominees and their nominators for the prize No. Nominee Country Genre(s) Nominator(s)1Paul Bourget (1852–1935)French Third Republic Francenovel, short story, literary criticism, essaysRené Bazin (1853–1932)2Borden Parker Bowne (1847–1910)United States 1908philosophy, theology, essaysHenry MacCracken (1840–1918)3Francesco D'Ovidio (1849–1925)Kingdom of Italy Italyphilology, literary criticismErnesto Monaci (1844–1918)4Angelo de Gubernatis (1840–1913)Kingdom of Italy Italydrama, essays, philology, poetryAngelo Valdarnini (1847–1930) Gaspare Finali (1829–1914) Paolo Boselli (1838–1932) Francesco Lorenzo Pullé (1850–1934)5Eugène-Melchior de Vogüé (1848–1910)French Third Republic Franceessays, literary criticismAlbert Vandal (1853–1910)6Anatole France (1844–1924)French Third Republic Francepoetry, essays, drama, novel, literary criticismPaul Hervieu (1857–1915)7Iwan Gilkinnotes Gilkin: Prométhée ("Prometheus", 1897) (1858–1924) BelgiumpoetryErnest Discailles (1837–1914)8Martin Greif (1839–1911)German Empire Germanypoetry, drama20 professors from Breslau, Prague, Leipzig, Liège, Innsbruck, etc.9Ángel Guimerá Jorge (1845–1924) Restoration (Spain) Spaindrama, poetry18 members of the Reial Acadèmia de Bones Lletres de Barcelona10Selma Lagerlöf (1858–1940) Swedennovel, short storyEwert Wrangel (1863–1940) Otto Sylwan (1864–1954) Gustav Cederschiöld (1849–1928) Ludvig Stavenow (1864–1950) Johan Vising (1855–1942) Frits Läffler (1847–1921) Erik Brate (1857–1924) Eugène Lewenhaupt (1849–1927) Axel Olrik (1864–1917) Karl Johan Warburg (1852–1918) Hans Lange (1884–1960) Fredrik Wulff (1845–1930) Adolf Noreen (1854–1925) Gottfrid Billing (1841–1925) Claes Annerstedt (1839–1927) Harald Hjärne (1848–1922) Vitalis Norström (1856–1916) Waldemar Rudin (1833–1921) Albert Theodor Gellerstedt (1836–1914) Karl Alfred Melin (1849–1919) Carl Carlson Bonde (1850–1913)11Ernest Lavisse (1842–1922)French Third Republic FrancehistoryFrédéric Masson (1847–1923)12Salvador Rueda Santos (1857–1933)Restoration (Spain) Spainpoetry, essays4 professors of the Complutense University of Madrid13Maurice Maeterlinck (1862–1949) Belgiumdrama, poetry, essaysErnest Discailles (1837–1914) Belgian professors and Academy members14John Morley (1838–1923) United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland Great Britainbiography, literary criticism, essays8 members of the British Society of Authors15Georgios Souris (1853–1919) Kingdom of Greece Greecepoetry, songwritingPavlos Karolidis (1849–1930)notes joint The nomination was made jointly by D. Patsopoulos and P. Karolidis. Dimitrios Patsopoulos (1845–1920)joint members of the Parnassos Literary Society16Algernon Charles Swinburne (1837–1909) United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland Great Britainpoetry, drama, literary criticism, novel31 members of the British Society of Authors Carl Bildt (1850–1931)17Émile Verhaeren (1855–1916) Belgiumpoetry, essaysErnest Discailles (1837–1914) Belgian professors and Academy members18Charles Wagnernotes Wagner: Justice. Huit discours ("Justice: Eight Speeches", 1889), Sois un homme! Simples causeries sur la conduite de la vie ("Be a Man! Simple Discussions on How to Lead Life", 1889), Jeunesse ("Youth", 1895), Vie Simple ("Simple Life", 1895), L'âme des choses ("The Soul of Things", 1901), and Le long du chemin ("Along the Path", 1901)http://libris.kb.se/bib/8345517 Nobelpriset i litteratur. Nomineringar och utlåtanden 1901–1950 Bo Svensén 2001 Svenska Akademien 9789113010076 11 November 2020 (1852–1918) French Third Republic Francetheology, philosophyBernard Bouvier (1861–1941)19Verner von Heidenstam (1859–1940) Swedennovel, short story, poetryCarl Carlson Bonde (1850–1913)20Jaroslav Vrchlický (1853–1912) Austria-Hungary(Czechoslovakia)poetry, drama, translationArnošt Kraus (1859–1943)21Alexandru Dimitrie Xenopol (1847–1920)Kingdom of Romania Romaniahistory, philosophy, essaysIon Găvănescu (1859–1949) Prize decision Nobel committee chair Carl David af Wirsén had for years fiercely opposed the proposals to award Selma Lagerlöf the Nobel Prize in Literature. Wirsén advocated Algernon Swinburne who competed against Lagerlöf as the main candidate for the 1908 prize, but following Swinburne's death Lagerlöf received a strong support from the other members of the Swedish Academy in 1909. In addition to a joint nomination from eight members of the Swedish Academy, the Nobel committee received ten nominations for Lagerlöf from prominent professors in Sweden and Denmark, including one proposal of a shared prize to Lagerlöf and Verner von Heidenstam.Det litterära Nobelpriset : historien om världslitteraturens största utmärkelse Priset etableras Tenngart, Paul Albert Bonniers förlag 2025 Swedish Gustav Källstrand Andens Olympiska Spel: Nobelprisets historia, Fri Tanke 2021 While Lagerlöf had a strong support by the members of the Swedish Academy as a whole, only two members of the Academy's Nobel committee advocated a prize to Lagerlöf, while the other three, including Wirsén, pushed for the Belgian writer Maurice Maeterlinck (subsequently awarded in 1911). In addition, Wirsén and committee member Hans Hildebrand, who both opposed a prize to Lagerlöf, also launched the French historian Ernest Lavisse as a candidate for the prize. Wirsén concluded in his report to the Academy: "Since only two committee members unconditionally recommended Selma Lagerlöf, the statement could not contain a proposal in her favor. It has already been mentioned that other committee members paid great attention to Maeterlinck's and Lavisse's candidacies."Nobelpriset i litteratur. Nomineringar och utlåtanden 1901-1920 1909 Svensén, Bo Svenska Akademien 2001 On 11 November 1909 a large majority of the members of the Swedish Academy voted to award Lagerlöf the Nobel Prize in Literature as the first Swedish and first female recipient of the award. Reactions The choice of Swedish writer Selma Lagerlöf as Nobel laureate in 1909 (for the "lofty idealism, vivid imagination and spiritual perception that characterizes her writings") followed fierce debate because of her writing style and subject matter, which broke literary decorums of the time.http://www.svd.se/kulturnoje/understrecket/valdsam-debatt-i-akademien-nar-lagerlof-valdes_3569005.svd Article (in Swedish): "Violent debate in the Academy when Lagerlöf was elected". 25 September 2009 Svenska Dagbladet 25 September 2009 sv Svd.se 21 May 2021 Asaid Alan http://www.literarymagazine.com/selma-lagerlof Sebastian Nilsson Lindberg Writer Portrait: Selma Lagerlöf The Literary Magazine of Swedish Books and Writers 21 May 2021 17 February 2019 https://web.archive.org/web/20190217030227/http://www.literarymagazine.com/selma-lagerlof dead Våldsam debatt i Akademien när Lagerlöf valdes Svenska Dagbladet 25 September 2009 sv http://www.svd.se/kulturnoje/understrecket/valdsam-debatt-i-akademien-nar-lagerlof-valdes_3569005.svd 21 May 2021 In the French newspaper Le Figaro the award to Lagerlöf was enthusiastically received. "All of her work", reporter Marc Hélys wrote, "bears the mark of her nobel soul; all of it, all the way to the shortest of her stories, all the way to the delicious volume composed for children: The Wonderful Adventures of Nils". The positive recognition was complemented by a short story by Lagerlöf published in the paper's Supplément littéraire the same day.The Nobel Prize and the Formation of Contemporary World Literature Tenngart, Paul Bloomsbury Publishing 2023 26 Award ceremony In his award ceremony speech on 10 December 1909, Claes Annerstedt of the Swedish Academy said: "Geijer, Tegnér, or Runeberg, to mention only them, could justly have laid claim to the Nobel Prize, and the development which these great men have started has grown to fuller bloom. But among the writers of the younger generation who have contributed so much to our literature, there is one name that enjoys the special splendour of a star of the first magnitude. In the works of Selma Lagerlöf we seem to recognize the purest and best features of our Great Swedish Mother."Award ceremony speech by Claes Annerstedt nobelprize.org During Lagerlöf's acceptance speech, she remained humble and told a fantastic story of her father, as she 'visited him in heaven'. In the story, she asks her father for help with the debt she owes and her father explains the debt is from all the people who supported her throughout her career.http://publicdomainreview.org/2012/01/11/selma-lagerlof-surface-and-depth/ Selma Lagerlöf: Surface and Depth The Public Domain Review 21 May 2021Banquet speech nobelprize.org Lagerlöf explains that she remembered her father the moment she received the prize, saying: "But then I thought of my father and felt a deep sorrow that he should no longer be alive, and that I could not go to him and tell him that I had been awarded the Nobel Prize. I knew that no one would have been happier than he to hear this. Never have I met anyone with his love and respect for the written word and its creators, and I wished that he could have known that the Swedish Academy had bestowed on me this great Prize. Yes, it was a deep sorrow to me that I could not tell him." Notes References External links Award ceremony speech by Claes Annerstedt nobelprize.org Nobel diploma nobelprize.org Photo gallery nobelprize.org 1909 Category:Selma Lagerlöf Nobel