Astrid Lindgren
Astrid Lindgren was born on 14 November 1907 in Vimmerby Parish, Sweden, and grew up in a Swedish-speaking world that would later furnish much of the imaginative material running through her fiction. A Swedish citizen throughout her life, she wrote primarily in Swedish, though her work also reached readers through Danish.
Lindgren worked as a novelist, children's writer, young adult author, and screenwriter, building a body of fiction that ranged from the comic to the adventurous. Among her notable works are Pippi Longstocking, Emil from Lönneberga, Karlsson-on-the-Roof, and The Six Bullerby Children, all of which draw on the textures of Swedish rural and small-town life. She also wrote Mio, My Son, The Brothers Lionheart, and Ronja, the Robber's Daughter, titles that lean into darker, more fantastical territory. Alongside her prose fiction she produced screenplays, extending her storytelling across different formats. Her achievements were recognised with several awards, including the Right Livelihood Award, Litteris et Artibus, and the Nils Holgersson Plaque.
Lindgren died on 28 January 2002 in Gustav Vasa parish, Sweden, having spent nearly a century contributing to literature for younger readers. The Right Livelihood Award she received stands as one of the more concrete markers of the esteem in which her work was held during her lifetime.
Quotes by Astrid Lindgren
Astrid Lindgren's insights on:
Then he turned to the Master Rose Gardener and said something even more peculiar, “I enjoy the birds singing. I enjoy the music of the silver poplars.
I’m going to bed now, Lovis! Not to sleep. But to think and to curse, and woe better anyone who disturbs me!
We were close to him as never before, and this night was the night of our battle. I wondered if they knew, all those who had waited for thousands and thousands of years. I wondered if they knew that this was the night of the battle, and if they thought about me.
As we were walking along, Britta took her book out of her schoolbag and smelled it. She let all of us smell it. New books smell so good you can tell how much fun it’s going to be to read them.
Then she yelled after the girl, ‘No, we haven’t seen any bald ‘uns all days. But yesterday seventeen of ’em went by. Arm in arm!
Pippi stroking his back. ‘Bosh, that was a true fib,’ she added. ‘But if it was true, how could it be a fib? Perhaps when all’s said and done, he really has been a butler in Sourabaya, after all! Well, if that’s so, I know who’s going.
The difference between your horse and your monkey? – I don’t know, I’m sure.’ ‘No, it is rather a tricky one,’ said Pippi. ‘But I’ll give you a clue. If you see them both under a tree and then one of them starts to climb it, it’s not the horse.
I want to teach the horse to ski, but I’m blowed if I know whether he will need four skis, or only two.
Well, well, so you aren’t going to be a maidservant this time?” said Pippi, stroking his back. “Oh, that was a lie, that’s true,” she continued. “But still, if it’s true, how can it be a lie?” she argued. “You wait and see, it’s going to turn out he was a maidservant in Arabie after all, and if that’s the case, I know who’s making the meatballs at our house hereafter!