The heights of imagination

“Everything great that ever happened in this world happened first in somebody’s imagination.”  – Astrid Lindgren 

Born in rural Sweden on this date in1907, Lindgren created one of the world’s most beloved – and iconic – figures in children’s literature, Pippi Longstocking.  Pippi actually emerged in the late 1930s from a bedside conversation Astrid had with her daughter Karin.  Karin was ill and as Lindgren sat with her, Karin suddenly said, "Tell me a story about Pippi Longstocking."   Astrid said she had no idea where the name came from but she created a tale as a response, and the rest, as they say …

Pippi opened the creative writing door for Lindgren to ultimately become the third most translated writer of all time – trailing only Hans Christian Andersen and The Brothers Grimm – with more than 160 million “Pippi” books in print in 95 languages worldwide.

Lindgren’s writing career started in journalism, working for a small newspaper in her rural Swedish community.  She continued writing journalisticly as well as creatively for most of her long life.      She won numerous awards for her literature and her feature stories and following her death in 2002, the government of Sweden instituted the Astrid Lindgren Memorial Award in her honor.  It is the world's largest annual monetary award given for children's and youth literature.

“A childhood without books – that would be no childhood,” Lindgren once said.  “That would be like being shut out from the enchanted place where you can go and find the rarest kind of joy.”

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