Nobel Prize Laureate Author. She received world-wide success as a Swedish author early in the 20th Century. She was the first woman recipient of the Nobel Prize of Literature in 1909, first woman to become a member of the Swedish Academy in 1914, and first woman to be promoted as a doctor of honors at the Swedish University in 1907. Her books are still very popular today. She made her debut in 1891 with “The Saga of Gosta Berling,” a novel about her own region of Sweden. Instead of the realistic novels of that era, it was written with fantasy and romance. Her first successful book was a collection of short stories, “Osynliga Lankar” in 1894, and this followed with “Miracles of Antichrist” in 1897, a politically oriented novel set in Sicily, and the short novel “A Tale of Manor” in 1899. Her greatest success was “Jerusalem” in 1901 to 1902, which was an epic about a group of peasants under a charismatic leader immigrating from Sweden to Palestine. She is the author of Sweden's most popular book “The Adventures of Nils Holgrersson” in 1906, which is a fairy-tale of a boy flying across Sweden on the back of a goose. This book was later illustrated by Anton Pieck. Still a requirement in schools in Sweden is the Gothic crime novel “The Treasure,” which was published in 1904. Her books were translated into at least fifty languages. There have been plays, operas and movies made from her books. Greta Garbo starred in the world-wide famous silent movie “Gosta berling's Saga“ in 1924. She was a simple Swedish farm girl. After her father became bankrupt and lost the farm, she able to purchase it years later for her family. She was political and active in local politics as well as women's rights movements. When Swedish women received the right to vote in 1919, she gave the official speech marking this historical event. The Selma Lagerlof Society was established in 1958 on her birth date. It has about 800 members and promotes her writings.