Selma Lagerlöf was born at the Mårbacka manor in Värmland. She made her breaktrough in 1891 with the novel Gösta Berlings saga. At that time, she was still working as a teacher but after some years she was able to live from her writing.

When she went on journeys to Italy and the Mideast, she met in Palestine some Swedish emigrants. They inspired her to write The Epos of Jerusalem.

Her best known book is Nils Holgersson's Travel through Sweden (1906-1907), which has been translated into many foreign languages. She received the Nobel Prize for literature in 1909. Some years later she became a member of the committee distributing this prize, the Swedish Academy.