Winner of the Nobel Prize for Literature in 1909 -- the first woman to be so honored -- Swedish novelist Selma Lagerl f (1858-1940) was a gifted storyteller whose writings were often tinged with the supernatural and rooted in the sagas and legends of her homeland.
She secured her reputation as a children's-book author with The Wonderful Adventures of Nils, long considered a masterpiece of children's literature. Written at the request of...