Video: Rebel Astrid Lindgren: the naughty girl who conquered the world with children's books
2024 Author: Richard Flannagan | [email protected]. Last modified: 2023-12-15 23:55
The story of the adventures of the naughty girl Pippi Longstocking Astrid Lindgren wrote in 1941 by her daughter's bed. The girl suffered from pneumonia, and her mother, trying to somehow cheer her up, began to compose funny stories. The process turned out to be so exciting that the baby quickly recovered. The manuscript was also completed, but it turned out to be difficult to publish it. Ahead of Astrid were years of struggle for the right to give children joy.
Before the story of Pippi saw the light of day, Astrid Lindgren had to fight with the publishers. Although it was not the first time for her to defend her innocence: from her youth she showed a rebellious character and always achieved her goal. After leaving school, she said a resolute "no!" the desire of her parents to marry her, and thus arrange her well-being. Despite a recommendation in her school diploma about "suitability" to become a first-class housewife, Astrid gets a job as a reporter for a newspaper. She is fond of cinema and jazz, does short hair, feels strong and independent, until at the age of 18 she finds out about … pregnancy.
The child's father was not in the mood for the wedding, and Astrid made the difficult decision to leave for Stockholm in order to avoid unnecessary questions, sidelong glances and condemnation. Before giving birth, she managed to graduate from courses for stenographers, when it was time to give birth, she turned to human rights activist Eva Anden for help, who arranged for her in the Stevans family. Astrid did not count on support from her own relatives. After some time, the young mother went to Sweden to work, and left her son Lars with the Stevans. Life in two countries was exhausting Astrid, and when she was finally able to find a well-paid job as a secretary, her parents went to the world and agreed to take their grandson with them.
Astrid got a job as secretary at the Royal Automobile Club, whose director was Sture Lindgren. It is easy to guess that it was he who became Astrid's husband, agreeing to adopt her child. Later, they had a common daughter, Karin. It was during her illness that Astrid discovered her writing talent. True, the first attempts to publish the manuscript were not crowned with success, the publishing houses unanimously passed the verdict: the book is not pedagogical. Nobody wanted to listen to the arguments that children's literature should give joy and good mood.
However, Lindgren did not give up, she took part in a literary competition, took second place there. Her first book was published, followed by those that had not previously attracted the interest of publishers - "Pippi Longstocking" and "Carlson Who Lives on the Roof." The success was deafening, the children enthusiastically read stories about their favorite heroes. Interestingly, the animated story about Carlson was especially popular in the USSR. In the West, by contrast, audience preferences were on Pippi's side.
Leaving writing in the 1980s, Astrid took up the education of her grandchildren, with whom she willingly played on the playground and even climbed trees. She answered dozens of letters every day that came to her inbox. She gave all the money she earned to help those in need, while she herself led an ascetic lifestyle. With her money, a rehabilitation center for disabled children was opened, she lobbied for a law on helping homeless animals and insisted on the need to protect the rights of children.
At the end of her life, Lindgren was not deprived of attention: she was named the Person of the Year in Sweden, her name was given to one of the small planets, a monument was erected in her honor. Astrid perceived this with humor, joked, henceforth can be called "Asteroid Lindgren", assured that the monument really looks like her (although she "saw" it only by touch due to a sharp deterioration in vision). Becoming the Person of the Year, she sarcastically that not all the inhabitants of Sweden are like her: in years and with useless hearing and eyesight.
She left at the age of 95, leaving in our hearts a childish belief that "when the heart is hot and beating hard, it is impossible to freeze." This is what the story of Peppy Longstocking, a girl who did not want to grow up and behave.
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