Swedish Children's Literature: Authors


Figure 1.--Emil, the protagonist of Astrid Lindgren novels, is along with Pipi Longstockings, the best known chracter is Swedish children's literature. He is is always pictured barefoot. He is a kind of Swedish Tom Sawyer.

We are just beginning to collect information on Swedish authors. We know of only a few Swedish authors at this time, but of course Sweden had only a smll population. Hopefully our Swedish readers will tell us about authors they enjoyed as children. One particularly immaginative author is Elsa Beskow who is especially loved in Sweden. Perhaps best known to foreign readers is Astrid Lindgren who is best known for her Pippi Longstockings books. And of course many foreign authors had their books printed in Sweden.

Elsa Beskow (1874-1955)

A German reader, however, has mentiond the Swedish author Elsa Beskow was Swedish. More of her books, however, have been sold in Germany than Sweden because Germany has a much larger population than Sweden. They were also widely sold in other Scandinavian countries. She made a lot of picture-books. Picture books of course can be more easily marketed in other countries than books which require translation. Beskow's picture books include humanized flora, dwarfs, children, etc. A very well-known title of hers was "Hänschen im Blaubeerwald" ("Little Hans in the Blue Berry Forest"). The original Swedish title was "Puttes Äventyr i Blå-Bärs-Skogen". Beskow not only wrote the stories, but illustrated them all herself. Beskow's books are onderful for pre-readers and young children just beginning to read. They describe innocent, dreamlike adventures. "Little Hans in the Blue Berry Forest" describes how Hans goes into the forest to find blueberries for his mother's birthday gift. Then complications arise. The mouse-sized King of Blueberry Land arrives, taps Peter on his toe, shrinks him down to his size. The King then takes Hans on a magical adventure. They harness mice and sail on slips of bark with chirping crickets. The imaginative stories appeal to young readers and help to iunterest them in reading. The illustrations are simple, but charming. The illustration here shows Little Hans wearing a smock with short pants and lonfstockings. I'm not sure to what extent Swedish boys actually wore smocks.

Selma Lagerlöf

A reader writes, "Don't you dare forget Selma Lagerlöf with Nils Holgerssons underbare resa genom Sverige (Nils Holgersson's remarkable journey through Sweden). It was written early in the 20th century (1905?) and made into a film in the 1960s. I don't remember the name of the actor who played Nils but Max von Sydow was cast as Nils' father, if I well remember." Cheers,

Astrid Lindgren

We notice children's books by Astrid Lindgren. We know little about her at this time. One book is entitled Nils Karlsson Pyssling" (1956). I'm not sure how that translates. Nils Karlsson I believe is the maincharactr's name. We do not know a great deal about the book, but it appears to be about a little boy. He wears short pants and long stockings. The book was made into a German film with the same name. Lindgren is best known for her Pippi Longstockings books.

Maj Lindman

Maj Lindman was an important Swedish author of children's books. A reader writes, "Even in the United States I grew up with fond memories of her "Snip, Snap, and Snurr" series (three boys -- triplets I believe), in English translation, of course. The one I remember best was Snip, Snap and Snurr and the Red Shoes which, if I remember correctly, had them working at all sorts of tasks to earn the money to get their mother a new pair of red shoes. She also had a parallel series for girls "Flicka, Ricka and Dicka".






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Created: February 6, 2004
Last updated: 10:45 AM 10/26/2016