Sara Danius dies, Nobel's first lifelong secretary

Danius was elected part of the academy in 2013, and two years later he became the first woman to lead the academy since 1786.

Everything she did was characterized by a rare force and brightness”, the academy declared.

The permanent secretary serves as a spokesman and makes an annual announcement of the election of the academy for the Nobel Prize winner in Literature.

Her last such announcement was in 2017, when the academy selected British author Kazuo Ishiguro.

Danius withdrew as a permanent secretary in April 2018, amid a sexual scandal and claims of violating the rules of conflict of interest that resulted in a deep division among academy members.

Academy members are chosen for life. One result of the 2018 crisis was that the statutes from 1786 were revised, allowing the members to leave. Danius resigned from the academy in February.

During the 1980s, she worked as a critic in the daily “Dagens Nyheter”, before focusing on a academic career, including studies in Great Britain, France and the US.

Its 1998 doctorate thesis was central to modernisation and technology, as well as modern aesthetics.

Danius was appointed professor of Literature at Stockholm University in 2013. In 2014 she publicly declared that she had breast cancer.

Because of the strife of 2018, the academy postponed the price of Literature.

The Polish author, Olga Tokarczuk, was declared Thursday, winner of 2018, while Peter Handke of Austria was chosen for the 2019 award. / A OVR