Editing Birgit Nilsson (section)

=== Later life ===
[[File:Birgit Nilsson, Swedish Wagnerian Soprano, at home.jpg|thumb|right|Birgit Nilsson in 1981]]
Nilsson's autobiography, ''Mina minnesbilder'' (''My memoirs in pictures'') was published in Stockholm in 1977. She retired in 1984 to her childhood home in the Skåne province of southern Sweden, where her father had been a sixth-generation farmer and she had worked to grow beets and potatoes until she was 23. In an interview in the mid-1990s, she appeared happy, serene and as unpretentious as ever. "I've always tried to remember what my mother used to tell me", she said. "Stay close to the earth. Then when you fall down, it won't hurt so much."

In 1981, Sweden issued a postage stamp showing Nilsson as Turandot.<ref>{{cite book |title=The New York Times Biographical Service|publisher=The New York Times & Arno Press|volume=12|year=1981 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=jDwoAQAAIAAJ |access-date=29 April 2018 |page=1393 |quote=It is Birgit Nilsson — and although 63 years old and a survivor of 35 years in the world's most demanding dramatic soprano repertory, she can still summon an instrument of stunning power and clarity. ... Payment schedules were worked out, tempers soothed, and in February 1980, Miss Nilsson gave New York a triumphant ''Elektra''. ... As she travels the world, her honors follow her — one of them a newly issued Swedish postage stamp bearing her likeness in the role of 'Turandot'.}}</ref> She received the [[Illis quorum]] gold medal, today the highest award that can be conferred upon a Swedish citizen by the Government of Sweden.<ref>{{cite book |author=Nordic Council |title=Nordisk kontakt |publisher=Statens reproduktionsanstalt |year=1981 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=miIdAAAAIAAJ |language=sv |access-date=29 April 2018 |page=724 |quote=Sångerskan Birgit Nilsson har fått Illis Qourum i I8:e storleken. Hon fick medaljen för "sina synnerligen uppmärksammade insatser inom operan och annan sångkonst", heter det i regeringens motivering. Det är första gången Illis Quorum i 18:e storleken tilldelats en kvinna och det är fem år sedan den delades ut förra gången.}}</ref> In 1988, on the occasion of the 350th anniversary of [[New Sweden]], the first Swedish settlement in America, [[The American-Scandinavian Foundation]] named their prize for promising young American opera singers the [[Birgit Nilsson Prize]]. Nilsson personally chaired several competitions.<ref>{{cite book |author=Swedish Council of America |title=Sweden & America |publisher=Swedish Council of America |year=1998 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=o3YOAQAAMAAJ |language=de |access-date=29 April 2018 |page=9}}</ref>