Swedish Academy

The **Swedish Academy** () was started in 1786 by the Swedish King Gustav III.  It was copied from the Académie française, the first Academy ever. The Swedish Academy has 18 members. The motto of the Academy is "Talent and Taste" (_"Snille och Smak"_ in Swedish).

Since 1901 the Academy has decided who will win the Nobel Prize in Literature The prize is given in memory of Alfred Nobel.
The other thing the Academy does is to help to keep the Swedish language clean. They work for the "purity, strength, and greatness of the Swedish language" (_"Svenska folkets renhet, styrka och höghet"_). To help do this, the Academy publishes two dictionaries.

The first is a dictionary in only one big book, called _Svenska Akademiens ordlista_ (or _SAOL_). In 2015, it was up to its 14th edition. The second dictionary has many volumes. It is called _Svenska Akademiens ordbok_ (or _SAOB_). The content it is so big that it needs many books, like the _Oxford English Dictionary_. The first book in the set was printed in 1898 and in 2015 work had got as far as words beginning with the letter "V".

The Academy uses a building now known as the Stockholm Stock Exchange Building. The bottom floor was used as a trading exchange and the upper floor was used for dances, New Years Eve parties, etc. In 1786, the ballroom was the biggest room in Stockholm that could be heated and be used in the winter. The king asked if he could use it. The Academy has met there every year since. In 1914 the Academy gained the right to use the upper floor as their own forever. This is where they meet and, amongst other business, choose the Nobel Prize winners. Because of this, the Academy is one of the most important literary groups in the world. The Swedish Academy is one of the Royal Academies of Sweden.

## Current members

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

|Seat|Member of the Academy|Born|Elect.|Notes|
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
|1.|Lotta Lotass|1964|2009||
|2.|Bo Ralph|1945|1999||
|3.|Sture Allén|1928|1980|Permanent secretary 1986-1999|
|4.|Anders Olsson|1949|2008||
|5.|Göran Malmqvist|1924|1985||
|6.|Tomas Riad|1959|2011||
|7.|Sara Danius|1962|2013|Permanent secretary 2015-|
|8.|Jesper Svenbro|1944|2006||
|9.|Torgny Lindgren|1938|1991||
|10.|Peter Englund|1957|2002|Permanent secretary 2009-2015|
|11.|Klas Östergren|1955|2015||
|12.|Per Wästberg|1933|1997||
|13.|Gunnel Vallquist|1918|1982||
|14.|Kristina Lugn|1948|2006||
|15.|Kerstin Ekman|1933|1978|Inactive|
|16.|Kjell Espmark|1930|1981||
|17.|Horace Engdahl|1948|1997|Permanent secretary 1999-2009|
|18.|Katarina Frostenson|1953|1992||

### Permanent secretaries

|Order|Seat|Permanent Secretary of the 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|1828|1834-1868||
|4.|5.|Johan Erik Rydqvist|1800|1868-1869|_pro temporare_|
|5.|15.|Ludvig Manderström|1806|1869-1872||
|6.|12.|Carl Gustaf Strandberg|1825|1872-1874|_pro temporare_|
|7.|9.|Henning Hamilton|1814|1874-1881||
|8.|11.|Bror Emil Hildebrand|1806|1881-1883|_pro temporare_|
|9.|8.|Carl David af Wirsén|1842|1883-1912|_pro temporare_ in 1883-84|
|10.|6.|Hans Hildebrand|1842|1912|_pro temporare_|
|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.|16.|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-||

## Other websites

- Swedish Academy – Official site
- Swedish Academy – Official site
- SAOL on the web – Free
- SAOB on the web  – Free

## Infobox (organization)

- **name**: Swedish Academy
- **image**: Svenska-Akademien.jpg
- **size**: 220px
- **caption**: The Swedish Academy in Stockholm
- **formation**: 1786
- **headquarters**: Stockholm
- **leader title**: President