Swedish Academy facts for kids

Quick facts for kids
Swedish Academy

Svenska Akademien
Headquarters
Formation	20 March 1786; 239 years ago (20 March 1786)
Type	Royal academy
Headquarters	Stock Exchange Building, Stockholm
Membership	18 members
Permanent secretary	Mats Malm

The Swedish Academy (Swedish: Svenska Akademien) was started in 1786 by King Gustav III. It is one of Sweden's Royal Academies. It has 18 members who are chosen for life. They are the top experts on the Swedish language. Outside of Sweden, the Academy is most famous for choosing who wins the annual Nobel Prize in Literature. This prize honors Alfred Nobel, who created it.

About the Swedish Academy

Official logo of the Academy

The Swedish Academy was created in 1786 by King Gustav III. It was inspired by the French Academy and has 18 members. The King chose 18 members because the Swedish phrase De Aderton (meaning 'The Eighteen') sounded very important.

The Academy's motto is "Talent and Taste" ("Snille och Smak" in Swedish). Its main goal is to help the Swedish language stay "pure, strong, and grand."

The Academy meets in the Stockholm Stock Exchange Building. This building was first used for trading and big parties. When the Academy started, its main hall was the largest warm room in Stockholm. So, the King asked to use it.

The Academy has held its yearly meeting there ever since. Members of the Swedish royal family often attend. In 1914, the Academy got to use the upper floor permanently. This is where they meet and announce the Nobel Prize winners. This important job makes the Academy one of the most influential groups in literature worldwide.

The King of Sweden is the only person, besides the members, who can attend the Academy's meetings. On March 3, 2022, the King attended a meeting. This was the first time a Swedish king had done so in over 200 years.

Academy Members

Academy members Karl Ragnar Gierow and Henry Olsson with the Swedish king Gustav VI, 1966.

Members are chosen by a secret vote within the Academy. Before the choice is made public, the King of Sweden must approve it. Members include writers, language experts, literary scholars, historians, and a well-known lawyer.

At first, writers were a small group in the Academy. But in the 1900s, more than half of the 18 members became writers. For a long time, the Swedish Academy had mostly male members. However, the Academy has worked to become more equal. Since December 20, 2019, one-third of the members are women.

Before 2018, members could not resign; their membership was for life. The Academy could, however, remove members. This happened twice to Gustaf Mauritz Armfelt. He was removed in 1794, chosen again in 1805, and removed again in 1811.

In 1989, members Kerstin Ekman and Lars Gyllensten stopped attending meetings. They did this because the Academy did not support Salman Rushdie when a controversial book he wrote caused strong reactions. Another member, Werner Aspenström, also stopped attending for his own reasons. In 2005, Knut Ahnlund did the same. He was protesting the choice of Elfriede Jelinek for the Nobel Prize in 2004. He felt her work was not good for the prize. On November 25, 2017, Lotta Lotass said she had not attended meetings for over two years and no longer saw herself as a member.

Academy Property

Dag Hammarskjöld's farm in Backåkra, used as a retreat for Academy members

Dag Hammarskjöld's old farm at Backåkra is near Ystad in southern Sweden. Hammarskjöld, who was the Secretary-General of the United Nations (1953–1961), bought it in 1957 as a summer home. The south part of the farm is kept as a summer retreat for the 18 members of the Swedish Academy. Hammarskjöld was also a member of the Academy.

On April 11, 2019, the Academy shared its financial reports for the first time. The report showed that at the end of 2018, the Academy had money and property worth about 1.58 billion Swedish kronor. This was about $170 million US dollars.

Past Challenges

The Swedish Academy has faced some challenges over the years.

Early Challenges

After King Gustav III died in 1792, the Academy's standing became weaker. In 1794, a member named Gustav Mauritz Armfelt was removed from the Academy. He was found guilty of plotting against the Swedish government. In 1795, the Academy was even paused for two years due to political reasons. Armfelt was later brought back in 1805. But after he had to leave Sweden for Russia, he was removed from the Academy again in 1811.

In 1881, another member, Henning Hamilton, was removed. He was found guilty of misusing money by faking a relative's signature.

Recent Challenges

In 1989, members Kerstin Ekman and Lars Gyllensten left their positions. They were protesting the Academy's choice not to speak out about a controversial book by writer Salman Rushdie. "I am so disappointed and sad that the Academy couldn't choose sides for or against Rushdie," Ekman said. "The Academy should have supported Rushdie, it is a question of freedom of speech." Gyllensten added, "Threats and pressure are against everything the Academy stands for." Soon after, Werner Aspenström also left his position. He did not say why, but he supported a stronger statement from the Academy. At that time, members could not officially resign, so the number of active members went down.

The Academy's choice to stick to its rule of not making political statements was criticized. Many felt it was important to speak up for free speech. In March 2016, the Swedish Academy did speak out against the threats made against Salman Rushdie.

2018 Events

In April 2018, three Swedish Academy members (Klas Östergren, Kjell Espmark, and Peter Englund) resigned. This happened after an investigation involving author Jean-Claude Arnault, who is married to Academy member Katarina Frostenson. Arnault faced accusations of bad behavior. He and his wife were also accused of sharing the names of Nobel Prize winners early. This could have allowed friends to make money from bets. Arnault denied all accusations.

Sara Danius, who was the permanent secretary, hired a law firm to investigate. They looked into whether Frostenson had shared secret information or if Arnault had too much influence. No legal action was taken against Frostenson. The investigation caused disagreements among the Academy members. After a vote about Frostenson's membership, the three members resigned in protest. Two former permanent secretaries, Sture Allén and Horace Engdahl, said Danius was not a strong leader.

On April 10, Danius was asked to resign from her role. This meant four seats were now empty. Even though the Academy voted against removing Katarina Frostenson, she chose to stop taking part in the Academy's work. This brought the total number of empty seats to five. Since two other seats were already empty from the earlier events, only 11 active members remained.

On May 4, 2018, the Swedish Academy announced that the Nobel Prize in Literature would be delayed until 2019. In 2019, two winners would be chosen. Even though it was still possible to choose a 2018 winner (only eight active members are needed), there were worries. People felt the Academy was not in a good position to give out the award fairly.

Many people thought this situation hurt the prize's reputation. King Carl XVI Gustaf of Sweden said that the rules might need to change. This included allowing members to resign from their lifelong positions. On March 5, 2019, it was announced that the Nobel Prize in Literature would be awarded again. Winners for both 2018 and 2019 were announced together. This decision came after the Swedish Academy made several changes to its structure and how Nobel Committee members are chosen. These changes were made to "restore trust in the Academy."

In November 2019, the Swedish Academy added five temporary outside members to help its Nobel Committee. These included writers, publishers, and literary critics. However, two of these new members left after only two weeks. One said that the work to change the Academy was taking too long.

Academy Dictionaries

To help keep the Swedish language strong, the Academy publishes three dictionaries.

• The first is a one-volume spelling dictionary called Svenska Akademiens ordlista (SAOL). It is now in its 14th edition.
• The second is a large, multi-volume dictionary called Svenska Akademiens Ordbok (SAOB). It is like the Oxford English Dictionary. The first volume came out in 1893, and the last one was finished in 2023.
• The third is a two-volume dictionary called Svensk ordbok utgiven av Svenska Akademien ('Swedish dictionary published by the Swedish Academy'). It covers modern Swedish and includes pronunciations, word origins, definitions, and examples.

All three dictionaries can be used for free online at svenska.se.

The Academy has also published a four-volume grammar book for the Swedish language (Svenska Akademiens grammatik, SAG). This book is for researchers and university students. There is also a smaller, single-volume grammar book for those who need something less detailed (Svenska Akademiens språklära, SAS).

Awards and Prizes

Since 1901, the Swedish Academy has chosen the winner of the Nobel Prize in Literature each year. This prize honors Alfred Nobel.

The Swedish Academy gives out almost 50 different prizes and scholarships every year. Most of these are for Swedish authors. People do not need to apply or compete for these awards. The Dobloug Prize is the largest of these, worth $40,000. It is a literature prize given for Swedish and Norwegian fiction.

The Great Prize

The Great Prize (Swedish: Stora Priset) was started by King Gustav III. This prize is a single gold medal. It is the most important award given by the Swedish Academy. Some famous winners include Selma Lagerlöf (in 1904 and 1909), Astrid Lindgren (in 1971), and Tove Jansson (in 1994).

Other Awards

The Academy gives out about 50 prizes each year. You do not need to apply or compete for them.

Current Members

Here are the current members of the Swedish Academy, listed by their seat number:

Seat	Picture	Member	Born	Age	Elected	Notes
1.		Eric M. Runesson	1960	64	2018
2.		Bo Ralph	1945	79	1999
3.		David Håkansson	1978	46	2023
4.		Anders Olsson	1949	76	2008	Permanent secretary 2018–2019
5.		Ingrid Carlberg	1961	63	2020
6.		Tomas Riad	1959	65	2011
7.		Åsa Wikforss	1961	64	2019
8.		Jesper Svenbro	1944	81	2006
9.		Ellen Mattson	1962	62	2019
10.		Peter Englund	1957	68	2002	Permanent secretary 2009–2015.
11.		Mats Malm	1964	61	2018	Permanent secretary
12.		Per Wästberg	1933	91	1997
13.		Anne Swärd	1969	56	2019
14.		Steve Sem-Sandberg	1958	66	2020
15.		Jila Mossaed	1948	77	2018
16.		Anna-Karin Palm	1961	64	2023
17.		Horace Engdahl	1948	76	1997	Permanent secretary 1999–2009
18.	Vacant

Permanent Secretaries

Order	Seat	Picture	Permanent Secretary of the Swedish Academy	Born	Years	Notes
1.	11.		Nils von Rosenstein	1752	1786–1824
2.	13.		Frans Michael Franzén	1772	1824–1834
3.	12.		Bernhard von Beskow	1796	1834–1868
4.	5.		Johan Erik Rydqvist	1800	1868–1869	pro tempore
5.	15.		Ludvig Manderström	1806	1869–1872
6.	12.		Carl Gustaf Strandberg	1825	1872–1874	pro tempore
7.	9.		Henning Hamilton	1814	1874–1881
8.	11.		Bror Emil Hildebrand	1806	1881–1883	pro tempore
9.	8.		Carl David af Wirsén	1842	1883–1912	pro tempore in 1883–84
10.	6.		Hans Hildebrand	1842	1912–1913	pro tempore
11.	11.		Erik Axel Karlfeldt	1864	1913–1931
12.	14.		Per Hallström	1866	1931–1941
13.	13.		Anders Österling	1884	1941–1964
14.	7.		Karl Ragnar Gierow	1904	1964–1977
15.	14.		Lars Gyllensten	1921	1977–1986
16.	3.		Sture Allén	1928	1986–1999
17.	17.		Horace Engdahl	1948	1999–2009
18.	10.		Peter Englund	1957	2009–2015
19.	7.		Sara Danius	1962	2015–2018
20.	4.		Anders Olsson	1949	2018–2019	pro tempore April–June 2018
21.	11.		Mats Malm	1964	2019–

See also

In Spanish: Academia Sueca para niños

• List of members of the Swedish Academy
• List of language regulators
• Bellman Prize
• Dobloug Prize
• Backåkra

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