“Give the children love, more love and even more love, then good manners will come naturally,” was the author’s credo.
Astrid Anna Emilia Ericsson spent her own – happy – childhood on her parents’ farm in the southern Swedish province of Småland – a source of inspiration for her descriptions, for example the fictional village of Bullerbü.
Young unmarried mother
As a trainee at a local newspaper, she learned the trade of journalism. At the age of 18, she became pregnant by the editor-in-chief of the newspaper and left her homeland. She spends the rest of her life in Stockholm. She works as a secretary for the Swedish automobile club KAK, where she meets her husband Sture Lindgren. The two married in 1931, and in 1934 Lindgren’s son Lasse had a half-sister, Karin, who one day, sick in bed, asked her mother to tell her about “Pippi Långstrump”. Initially rejected by some German publishers, her book of the same name became a worldwide success.
TV Tips: Biography “Astrid” on January 28, ORF 2, 11.40 p.m.; until February 7th in the 3sat-TVthek: “Ronja, the robber’s daughter”
Source: Nachrichten
