Swedish Academy

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The Swedish Academy or Svenska Akademien, founded in 1786 by King Gustav III, is one of the Royal Academies of Sweden. Modelled after the Académie française, 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, vigour and majesty" of the Swedish language. To that end the Academy publishes two dictionaries.

The first is a one-volume dictionary called Svenska Akademiens Ordlista (SAOL). The second is a multi-volume dictionary, edited on principles similar to those of the Oxford English Dictionary, entitled Svenska Akademiens Ordbok (SAOB). The SAOL has reached its 13th edition while the first volume of the SAOB was published in 1898 and today (2004) work has progressed to words beginning with the letter "T".

The current permanent secretary of the Academy is Horace Engdahl, who was preceded by Sture Allén. Since 1901 the Academy has annually decided who will be the laureate for the Nobel Prize in Literature, awarded in memory of the donor Alfred Nobel.

The building now known as the Stockholm Stock Exchange Building was built for and is owned by the Academy. It is here that the Academy meets and, amongst other business, announces the names of Nobel Prize laureates.

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Current members

Current members of the Swedish Academy, ordered by seat number, are:

Sten Rudholm, elected 1977
Bo Ralph, elected 1999
Sture Allén, elected 1980, permanent secretary 1986-1999
Lars Forssell, elected 1971
Göran Malmqvist, elected 1985
Birgitta Trotzig, elected 1993
Knut Ahnlund, elected 1983, passive member since 2005
Östen Sjöstrand, elected 1975
Torgny Lindgren, elected 1991
Peter Englund, elected 2002
Ulf Linde, elected 1977
Per Wästberg, elected 1997
Gunnel Vallquist, elected 1982
Lars Gyllensten, elected 1966, permanent secretary 1977-1986, passive member since 1989
Kerstin Ekman, elected 1978, passive member since 1989
Kjell Espmark, elected 1981
Horace Engdahl, elected 1997, permanent secretary since 1999
Katarina Frostenson, elected 1992