Swedish Academy

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Swedish Academy

The Swedish Academy , founded in 1786 by King Gustav III

Gustav III of Sweden

Gustav III was Monarchy of Sweden from 1771 until his death. He was the eldest son of King Adolf Frederick of Sweden and Louisa Ulrika of Prussia, sister of Frederick the Great....
, is one of the Royal Academies

Swedish Royal Academies

The Royal Academies are independent organisations, founded on Swedish monarch command, that act to promote the arts, culture, and science in Sweden....
of Sweden

Sweden

Sweden , officially the Kingdom of Sweden , is a Nordic countries on the Scandinavian Peninsula in Northern Europe. Sweden has land borders with Norway to the west and Finland to the northeast, and it is connected to Denmark by the ?resund Bridge in the south....
. Modelled after the Académie française

Académie française

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The Swedish Academy , founded in 1786 by King Gustav III

Gustav III of Sweden

Swedish Royal Academies

The Royal Academies are independent organisations, founded on Swedish monarch command, that act to promote the arts, culture, and science in Sweden....
of Sweden

Sweden

Académie française

L'Acad?mie fran?aise, or the French Academy, is the pre-eminent France learned body on matters pertaining to the French language. The Acad?mie was officially established in 1635 by Cardinal Richelieu, the chief minister to Louis XIII of France....
, it has 18 members. The motto of the Academy is "Talent and Taste" ("Snille och Smak" in Swedish). The primary purpose of the Academy is to further the "purity, strength, and sublimity of the Swedish language

Swedish language

Swedish is a North Germanic languages language, spoken by around 10 million people, predominantly in Sweden and parts of Finland, especially along the coast and on the ?land islands....
" ("Svenska Språkets renhet, styrka och höghet") (Walshe, 1965). To that end the Academy publishes two dictionaries

Dictionary

A dictionary is a book of Alphabetical order listed words in a specific language, with definitions, etymologies, pronunciations, and other information; or a book of alphabetically listed words in one language with their equivalents in another, also known as a lexicon....
.

The first is a one-volume dictionary called Svenska Akademiens Ordlista
Svenska Akademiens Ordlista

Svenska Akademiens Ordlista, or SAOL for short, is a dictionary published every few years by the Swedish Academy. It is a single volume that is considered the final arbiter of Swedish language spelling....
(SAOL). The second is a multi-volume dictionary, edited on principles similar to those of the Oxford English Dictionary
Oxford English Dictionary

The Oxford English Dictionary , published by the Oxford University Press , is a comprehensive dictionary of the English language. Two fully-bound print editions of the OED have been published under its current name, in 1928 and 1989; as of December 2008 the dictionary's current editors have completed a quarter of the third edition....
, entitled Svenska Akademiens Ordbok
Svenska Akademiens Ordbok

Svenska Akademiens ordbok is a dictionary published by the Swedish Academy, with the official title Ordbok ?ver svenska spr?ket utgiven av Svenska Akademien....
(SAOB). The SAOL has reached its 13th edition while the first volume of the SAOB was published in 1898 and today work has progressed to words beginning with the letter "T".

The current permanent secretary of the Academy is Horace Engdahl

Horace Engdahl

Horace Oscar Axel Engdahl is a Sweden literary historian and critic. He has been the permanent secretary of the Swedish Academy since 1999, a run that will end in June 2009 when historian Peter Englund takes the gavel....
, who was preceded by Sture Allén

Sture Allén

Sture All?n is a retired professor of computational linguistics at the University of Gothenburg, who was the previous secretary of the Swedish Academy between 1986 and 1999. He was elected to chair 3 of the Swedish Academy in 1980....
. On 20 December 2008 Horace Engdahl announced his resignation, and on 1 June 2009 he will be succeeded by Peter Englund.

Since 1901 the Academy has annually decided who will be the laureate for the Nobel Prize in Literature

Nobel Prize in Literature

The Nobel Prize in Literature is awarded annually, since 1901, to an author from any country who has, in the words from the will of Alfred Nobel, produced "in the field of literature the most outstanding work in an ideal direction" ....
, awarded in memory of the donor Alfred Nobel

Alfred Nobel

was a Sweden chemist, engineer, innovator, armaments manufacturer and the inventor of dynamite. He owned Bofors, a major armaments manufacturer, which he had redirected from its previous role as an iron and steel mill....
.

The building now known as the Stockholm Stock Exchange Building

Stockholm Stock Exchange Building

The Stock Exchange Building is a building originally erected for, and is still owned by, the Swedish Academy, located on the north side of the square Stortorget in Gamla stan, the old town in central Stockholm, Sweden....
was built for the bourgeoisie. The bottom floor was used as a trading exchange (this later became the stock exchange) and the upper floor was used for balls, New Years eve parties, etc. When the academy was founded, the ballroom was the biggest room in Stockholm that could be heated and thus used in the winter, so the king asked if he could borrow it. The academy has had its annual meeting there every year since, but it was not until 1914 the academy gained the right to use the upper floor as their own for all eternity. It is here that the Academy meets and, amongst other business, announces the names of Nobel Prize

Nobel Prize

The Nobel Prize , established in the 1895 will of Swedish chemist Alfred Nobel; it was first awarded in Nobel Prize in Physics, Nobel Prize in Chemistry, Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine, Nobel Prize in Literature, and Nobel Peace Prize in 1901....
laureates. The latter makes it arguably one of the most influential literary bodies in the world.

Current members

The current members of the Swedish Academy listed by seat number :

Seat	Member of the Academy	Born	Elect.	Notes
1.	Vacant			Lotta Lotass Lotta Lotass Britt Inger Liselott Lotass , better known by her stage name, Lotta Lotass, is a Sweden writer and PhD of Literary criticism.Lotass made her literary debut in 2000, and two years later published her doctoral dissertation on Swedish writer Stig Dagerman.... to be introduced in 2009
2.	Bo Ralph Bo Ralph Professor Bo Rune Ingemar Ralph is a Sweden linguist, member of the Swedish Academy, and professor of Nordic Languages at the Department of Swedish Language at Gothenburg University....	1945	1999
3.	Sture Allén Sture Allén Sture All?n is a retired professor of computational linguistics at the University of Gothenburg, who was the previous secretary of the Swedish Academy between 1986 and 1999. He was elected to chair 3 of the Swedish Academy in 1980....	1928	1980	Permanent secretary 1986-1999
4.	Anders Olsson Anders Olsson Anders Olsson is a Sweden writer, professor of literature at Stockholm University and member of the Swedish Academy. Olsson has written some 15 books on poetry and the history of literature....	1949	2008
5.	Göran Malmqvist Göran Malmqvist Professor Nils G?ran David Malmqvist is a Sweden linguistics, member of the Swedish Academy , literary historian, sinologist and translator....	1924	1985
6.	Birgitta Trotzig Birgitta Trotzig Birgitta Trotzig , is a Sweden writer and was elected to the Swedish Academy in 1993.Trotzig is one of Sweden's most renowned modern writers, having written several novels in which she gives voice to her Catholic faith and her dark visions....	1929	1993
7.	Knut Ahnlund Knut Ahnlund Knut Emil Ahnlund is a Swedish literary historian, writer, and member of the Swedish Academy.Ahnlund is an expert on 19th and 20th century Nordic, especially Danish, literature....	1923	1983	Inactive
8.	Jesper Svenbro Jesper Svenbro Jesper Svenbro is a Sweden poet, classical languages, and member of the Swedish Academy.Svenbro was educated at Lund University, where he was awarded a Ph.D....	1944	2006
9.	Torgny Lindgren Torgny Lindgren Gustav Torgny Lindgren is a Sweden writer.Lindgren is the son of Andreas Lindgren and Helga Bj?rk. He studied in Ume? to become a teacher and worked as a teacher until the middle of the 1970s....	1938	1991
10.	Peter Englund Peter Englund Peter Englund is a Sweden author and historian, and a member of the Swedish Academy since 2002....	1957	2002	Permanent secretary 2009-
11.	Ulf Linde Ulf Linde Professor Ulf Harald Linde , is an art critic, writer, museum director and a member of the Swedish Academy. He was elected to the Swedish Academy on February 10 1977 and admitted on December 20 1977....	1929	1977
12.	Per Wästberg Per Wästberg Per W?stberg is a Sweden writer and a member of the Swedish Academy since 1997.W?stberg is born in Stockholm, son of Erik W?stberg and his wife Greta n?e Hirsch, and holds a degree in literature from Uppsala University....	1933	1997
13.	Gunnel Vallquist Gunnel Vallquist Gunnel Vallquist , Swedish writer and translator, Vallquist was elected member of the Swedish Academy in 1982. Gunnel Vallquist is of the Catholic Church and has written several essays on Catholic religion of our time, among them reports from the Second Vatican Council....	1918	1982
14.	Kristina Lugn Kristina Lugn Gunhild Bricken Kristina Lugn is a Sweden poet and dramatist and member of the Swedish Academy. She was born in Tierp, Uppland and was raised in Sk?vde, V?sterg?tland, and after finishing her academic education she has devoted her time to poetry, as literary critic and a playwright....	1948	2006
15.	Kerstin Ekman Kerstin Ekman Kerstin Lillemor Ekman is a Sweden novelist.Kerstin Ekman wrote a string of successful detective novels but later went on to psychological and social Theme s....	1933	1978	Inactive
16.	Kjell Espmark Kjell Espmark Professor Kjell Erik Espmark , is a writer, literary historian, member of the Swedish Academy and Professor of the History of Literature at Stockholm University....	1930	1981
17.	Horace Engdahl Horace Engdahl Horace Oscar Axel Engdahl is a Sweden literary historian and critic. He has been the permanent secretary of the Swedish Academy since 1999, a run that will end in June 2009 when historian Peter Englund takes the gavel....	1948	1997	Permanent secretary 1999-2009
18.	Katarina Frostenson Katarina Frostenson Katarina Frostenson is a Sweden poet and writer. She was elected a member of the Swedish Academy in 1992. In 2003, Frostenson was made a Chevalier of the L?gion d'Honneur in recognition of her services to literature....	1953	1992

See also: List of all members, past and present, of the Swedish Academy
List of members of the Swedish Academy

This is a list of members of the Swedish Academy by seat number. The dates shown indicate the terms of the members, who generally serve for life except for Gustaf Mauritz Armfelt who was excluded twice....

External links

- Official site (in Swedish)
- Official site (in English)
- Subscription only
- Free

Swedish Academy

Current members

See also

External links