When you hear the name Astrid Lindgren, Carlson, Emil, Pippi Longstocking and other heroes of stories written by a children's writer from Sweden immediately appear in front of your eyes
Astrid was born in 1907 on a farm near Vimmerby in southern Sweden. Their family was friendly, they lived in close proximity to nature. Apparently, this determined the style of the future works of the writer - free, light and simple.
In addition, the family sang a lot, my father told all sorts of jokes, and the neighbors who came to visit were also not averse to entertaining the campaign of friends with fables and fairy tales that little Astrid eagerly absorbed.
As Lindgren later said, she later used many jokes from childhood in her books.
The children treated work on the farm as an adventure, and when there were trips somewhere, there was no limit to the joy. But the real shock Lindgren experienced when she first picked up a book with fairy tales. She imagined the wonderful world that opened up to her in books. It was like a miracle, and soon she herself began to write different stories.
The beginning of the writing path
At 24, Astrid gets married and devotes herself entirely to her family. At the same time, she carries out assignments for the secretary and writes short stories for the family magazine.
Once, when her little daughter Karin fell ill, Astrid began to tell her a story about a girl. Karin immediately asked to tell the story about Pippi Longstocking - that is, she came up with this name herself. And my mother began to compose and tell stories about a girl who is not subject to any conventions and adult rules.
I must say that at that time Lindgren actively promoted the idea of upbringing, taking into account child psychology.
She wrote more and more stories about the red-haired freedom-loving girl, until they took shape in a book with Astrid's own illustrations. She gave this book to the publishing house for printing, but the manuscript was not accepted. However, at that time, Lindgren already realized that she had found her calling: to write children's books.
This was followed by the story of the detective Kalle Blumkvist, for which she received a significant literary prize. In total, there were three stories about Kalle, and all of them were enthusiastically received by little readers.
Then there was the boy's dramatic story "Mio, my Mio!", In which Lindgren raised the issue of abandoned children.
And, finally, the world-famous story about Carlson and the Kid is perhaps the most famous story of the Swedish writer.
Personal life
When Astrid was 18 years old, she met with the editor of the magazine Axel Bloomberg, who was about to divorce his wife. However, the process dragged on, and Astrid was already expecting a child. In order not to spoil Bloomberg's reputation, she left for Copenhagen and gave birth to her son Lars there. Leaving the boy with a foster family, she left for Stockholm and finished secretarial courses there.
She soon met Niels Sture Lindgren and they got married. Nils adopted Lars, and they began to live in a close-knit family - the same as Astrid's parents. And in 1934, a daughter, Karin, appeared in the family - the one who prompted her mother to write about Pippi Longstocking.
Astrid Lindgren, with her light, albeit persistent character, lived for almost a century - 94 years, and died in 2002.
Astrid has been reluctant to submit her work to various competitions, but she has many awards, including the Andersen Medal (called the Nobel Prize for Children's Writers).
