All-time Honorary Certified Swede
In this issue (Issue 04, 2014. Volume 142), Bo Zaunders, one of Scandinavia’s most capable storytellers, shares the story of visiting Disneyland in three of the five Nordic nations. Whether you’re American by birth, Scandinavian by heritage or the other way around, we know this story will strike a chord within you.
At the end of his story he mentions a chance meeting with one of my own personal favorite Scandinavians, the late author Astrid Lindgren. Lindgren made Sweden a superpower in the field of children’s literature and will live on forever through her fantastic characters and stories. She is also my own personal choice for all-time honorary Certified Swede.
Astrid Anna Emilia Ericsson was born on Nov. 14, 1907, the second of four daughters of a farmer, in the two-story, wood frame house that she later devoted to Pippi Longstocking. She began writing at an early age. Her first published piece was an essay written at age 13 for the local Vimmerby News in 1921; she later worked there as a proofreader. Her ability to use a typewriter got her office jobs, and in a short documentary film produced at the time by the Department of Labor, she was filmed as an example of the modern “working girl.” During World War II, Lindgren served as a correspondence censor in the Swedish Department of Intelligence.
In 1944 she began writing again, and the oft-retold story behind her first great work, “Pippi Longstocking,” was recounted regularly on Swedish television during the days after her death.
“Karin was ill and asked me to tell her a fairy tale. I asked her what about, and she said ‘about Pippi Longstocking.’ So I did,” Lindgren explained simply.
What she did was spin a yarn about the strongest girl in the world, an independent spirit with her own home (her father was off sailing the South Seas), who could lift policemen and horses over her head, who feared nothing and no one, who didn’t go to school, who had a bag full of gold coins to buy anything she wanted, who carried a monkey called Mr. Nilsson on her shoulder ... and who bounced on beds, walked on ceilings, ate candy and cakes at will and slept with her feet on her pillow.
A dubious beginning
Containing hand-typed sheets interspersed with sketchy illustrations of the freckled Pippi, with her unmistakable braided red hair and mismatched stockings, Lindgren’s first manuscript was rejected by Swedish publishing magnate Bonniers. The editors objected that it was too violent, would instill dangerous behavior in children and, moreover, poked fun at adult authority figures.
But by then, Lindgren had rediscovered the joy of writing. Her first book, published in 1944, was a story for teenage girls, called “Britt-Mari Opens Her Heart,” which won second place in a literature competition by publishers Rabén & Sjögren. In 1945, “Pippi” took first place in the same contest, and Lindgren persuaded the company to publish the work. It was a smash, and successive manuscripts launched a writing career that continued until 1987, when Lindgren wrote her last manuscript, a short mystery. Criticism of her fables followed Lindgren throughout her writing career, although no evidence that the concern was warranted ever arose. The author herself retorted to critics once that her own daughter would never dream of sleeping with her feet on her pillow!
Censor and critique but love from children
While many of her characters’ rowdy mischief unquestionably bordered on youthful insurrection, Lindgren’s works broke ground with the realities of everyday contemporary life, portraying death, alcoholism, unemployment, poverty, tyranny, cruelty, sexuality and numerous other issues that traditional children’s literature had long avoided.
Despite the modern themes, clear symbolism and well-developed plots in her books, Lindgren said she never made notes or outlines of her manuscripts beforehand. She simply sat down and wrote.
“I write to amuse the child within me and can only hope that other children may have some fun that way too,” she said. And that they did.
Astrid Lindgren died peacefully ten years ago at the age of 94 in her Stockholm apartment, where she had lived since 1941.
My memory
I met Astrid Lindgren through a mutual friend in her home in central Stockholm. She was petite, but beneath her physical appearance was a giant in person. She gave me a new name to bring with me in some autographed books I will always cherish. As she hugged me when I was about to leave, she barely reached my chest. I kept thinking that if I scratched her skin just a tiny little bit, sunshine would come pouring out. All the sunshine her stories spread came from a source deep within an extraordinary human being. She continues to make the world a little bit richer every day. And she will forever.
Ulf Barslund Martensson
Editor & Publisher
I was searching our archive for images from meeting the author, can not be sure I picked the right one but this image, of Astrid Lindgren at 86, better than anything tells her story, and also would have been her choice for sure...
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The Editor & Publisher
Inte som andra bloggar.... this entry will be sometimes in Swedish, sometimes 'på svenska' - Just så händelsrikt är livet som utgivare av Amerikas äldsta och numera enda Svenska tidskrift.
Här ovan poserar jag “on location” kl 6 på morgonen i Minneapolis St. Paul för två år sedan. Henrik Olund tog bilden som förberedelse för en porträttbild av Vice President Walter Mondale. (Det var en bra intervju med en bra person) Jag skriver sällan med byline i Nordstjernan men jag är alltid ansvarig för innehållet, även om jag inte alltid håller med om allt.
(PS. Intervjun med Mondale hittar ni på nordicreach.com DS.) |