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  • Astrids bilder [Astrid's pictures]
  • Christiane Raabe
Jacob Forsell (Ed) Johan Erséus and Margareta StrömstedtAstrids bilder [Astrid's pictures]Stockholm: Max Ström2006271 pp ISBN 9789171260314SEK 300 (approx)

Astrid Lindgren would have celebrated her 100th birthday on 14 November 2007. To mark this occasion, several new titles about the life and work of the great Swedish children's author were published, including this one.

Pippi Långstrump (Pippi Longstocking) thrust Lindgren into the limelight, but the internationally renowned writer always took care to protect her privacy. Born the second child of Samuel August Erikson and his wife Hanna, Lindgren spent a carefree childhood on their farm in Näs, thriving on freedom and a deep sense of security. At the age of 18, she became pregnant and moved to Stockholm as a single parent, where she eked out a living. She eventually married and had a second child.

It was at this child's sickbed that Lindgren started telling the story of an unconventional girl named Pippi Långstrump. This was the beginning of a career that was to make her one of the most famous and widely read Swedish children's writers.

Her husband Sture died prematurely in 1952. Lindgren never remarried, and she spent the rest of her life in a modest Stockholm apartment or at her cottage on the island of Furusund. Time and time again, she surprised her readers with new and very different books; she was involved in the film adaptations of her books, and later used her moral authority to take a public stance on social issues. But throughout her life, Lindgren shied away from public attention and preferred to spend time with family and a few select friends.

These facts are not new. But who was the real Astrid Lindgren? How did she live and work? Did she always remain, as some like to claim, the little peasant girl from Vimmerby? In Astrids bilder, the photographer Jacob Forsell, the author Johan Erséus, and Lindgren's long-term friend, the journalist Margareta Strömstedt, attempt to take a closer look at the life of the popular author.

Forsell, who has taken many iconic pictures of Lindgren, spent years going through the vast archives to select photos and documents that would shed new light on the author's biography. The generously illustrated chapters vividly show different aspects of Lindgren's life, such as her marriage, children, friends, homes, films, social engagement and later years. The pictures trace Lindgren's steps from childhood to old age; they show her in turn flirtatious and glamorous, as a family person and children's friend, in tune with nature or putting on a public persona. The photo-graphs taken during her last years are perhaps the most powerful. Exploring changing perspectives, they captivate the viewer and reveal unexpected aspects of the lesser-known Lindgren.

The book is a true companion, which tells readers much more about her person than Lindgren herself ever disclosed in her interviews or autobiographical texts. The result is a biography in pictures, which gives us an intimate close-up view of Lindgren while never exposing her.

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