Who was the first woman to win the Nobel Prize in Literature?
Answer
Selma Lagerlöf
The first woman to win the Nobel Prize in Literature was Swedish writer Selma Lagerlöf.
Lagerlöf received the prize in 1909, becoming the first woman recognized in the literature category. The Swedish Academy praised the “lofty idealism, vivid imagination and spiritual perception” of her writing. Her award came five years before she was elected to the Academy itself.
Born in 1858 at Mårbacka in Värmland, Lagerlöf trained as a teacher before becoming a full-time writer. Her breakthrough novel, “Gösta Berling’s Saga,” appeared in 1891 and helped establish her distinctive blend of folklore, legend, moral conflict, and vivid fantasy.
She is also known internationally for “The Wonderful Adventures of Nils,” a children’s book originally created to teach Swedish geography. Other Nobel-winning women sometimes cause confusion in this question: Grazia Deledda won in 1926, Pearl S. Buck in 1938, and Sigrid Undset in 1928.