Followed by a screening of theaward-winning 1997 film

JERUSALEMSee it free at Columbia University,7 P.M., Thurs., November 12at Deutsches Haus,420 W. 116th St., NYC(between Amsterdam and Morningside)

What happened when a band of Swedishfarmers sacrificed everything to join anextremist religious cult in the Holy Land.Their dream of living closer to God wasnot what they had imagined. Based onthe classic novel by SELMA LAGERLÖF,and directed by BILLE AUGUST.

WELCOME to aCENTENNIALCELEBRATIONof the 1909 presentation of the Nobel Prizefor Literature to the Swedish Author

SELMA LAGERLÖFthe first woman and first Swedeto receive the prize.

At Columbia University November 11-12, 2009Sponsored by the Columbia UniversitySwedish Program in cooperation with the Swedish Women’s Educational Association—New York Chapter.

Featuring Marie Bonnevie, Pernilla August, UlfFriberg, Lena Endre, Sven-Bertil Taube, ReineBrynolfsson, Max von Sydow, Olympia Dukakis,Viveka Seldahl, and Sven Wolter.

Presenting a staged reading of the new playLOVING SELMA LAGERLÖFBy Gunilla Boëthius and Marianne GoldmanEnglish translation by Verne Moberg,directed by Robert Greer, featuring MaryKeefe as Selma, Elise Rovinsky asSophie, and Ingrid Kullberg-Bendz as Valborg.7 P.M., Weds., November 11The public is invited, admission is free,and donations are welcomed. No reservations are necessary.

Selma Lagerlöf went down in Swedishhistory as a great storyteller andeverybody’s favorite maiden aunt. Butbeneath her public personality she leda rich emotional life nourished by thelove of two women: Sophie Elkan, arich Gothenburg widow known for her popular historical novels, andValborg Olander, a determined schoolteacher who made it her missionto organize the author’s internationalliterary career from a small town incentral Sweden.

A half century after Lagerlöf’s deathin 1940, her archives were opened tothe public, disclosing the thousands ofintimate letters she had written to herdearest colleagues. Since then scholarshave set to work analyzing the mysteries of her privatelife, as they have been passed down tous a century later.

Sophie Elkland Valborg Olander

This new play by Gunilla Boëthius andMarianne Goldman is based on personal correspondence and records,recreating the authentic drama of thelives of this legendary writer’s circle.

Entitled Selmas kärlekar (Selma’sLoves) in the original Swedish, theplay premiered earlier this year toenthusiastic reviews in Falun and laterin Sundsvall, Sweden.

Since Selma Lagerlöf won the NobelPrize for Literature in 1909, ten otherwomen writers–and 94 men–havereceived the award. This play reflectswhat a struggle it was for Lagerlöf tosucceed at a time when words like“feminist” and “homosexual” had notyet come into common usage.

Sophie and Selma Selma and Valborg

Selma Lagerlöf