Pippi Långstrump i Humlegården
A display of material selected from the Swedish Royal Library’s collections
Stockholm, until 16 October 2026
When I tell Swedes that I knew and met Astrid Lindgren (1907-2002) and even visited her a couple of times in the small apartment she lived in for 61 years, it’s often as though you’re telling a follower that you once met the Buddha, so deep was the impression she, or more particularly perhaps her alter ego (?), Pippi Longstocking, made on Swedish identity.
As a boy growing up in the north-east of England in the early 1950s, I was unaware of the growing phenomenon of Pippi Longstocking across the North Sea.
It wasn’t until I lived in Sweden, in the 1970s, that I began to be aware of the author whose influence by then almost brought down the government over the 102% tax the then Finance Minister, Gunnar Sträng (perhaps inadvertently) imposed on the earnings from the vast sales of her more than 40 books which include several substantial novels for older children as well as stories about characters other than Pippi, such as Emil, Karlsson and Ronja. And it wasn’t until I was a father, commuting to Dalarna from the UK over a twenty year period, that I began to read the stories to our daughter, who is named after Astrid and who – no coincidence, surely – now works in publishing in the UK.
During that time I came across only one story which had never been translated into English, Pippi Långstrump har Julgransplundring, and decided that with the help of my trusty Prisma dictionary I’d have a go myself. The result, Pippi
Longstocking’s After-Christmas Party, was published by Viking Penguin in 1995.
For the last few months, the Royal Library in Humlegården, central Stockholm, has had a small exhibition of materials from its vast Lindgren archive, on display in the annexe behind the original building. Carefully selected editions of the stories and novels, videos of the feature films and of Lindgren herself reading her stories on Swedish television, examples of some of the merchandise and some fascinating reference and academic works are all freely available to look at, watch and browse, in calm, quiet comfort.
The world-wide sales statistics are almost unbelievable. The translations into more than 90 languages. The phenomenal fan mail Lindgren and Pippi received (and still do!). The Lindgren Archive at the Royal Library is 150 shelf-meters long and was designated a UNESCO Memory of the World in 2005.
Born Astrid Emilia Ericsson on 14 November 1907, on a farm outside the village of Vimmerby, in Småland, she was already proof-reading and writing short pieces for her local newspaper, Vimmerby Tidning, by the age of 13. She married Sture Lindgren in 1931 and ten years later, with two children, they moved into the small apartment on Dalagatan, not far from Stockholm City Library, which she was to live in for the rest of her life, another 61 years. This was the apartment I was privileged to visit to discuss, very briefly, my translation. Lindgren was by then very old, rather frail and losing her sight. The apartment was very dimly-lit but by a small window
there sat a small, dark green typewriter on which her entire oeuvre was written.
Lindgren spoke excellent English and talked comfortably with our daughter while we drank her tea and ate her lovely cakes.
The exhibition’s timeline tells the basic facts of Lindgren’s life and career but omits to mention her 1976 satirical story Pomperiposssa i Monismania which rocked Palme’s government over the tax rate for the self-employed, and some say contributed to the defeat of the Social Democrats at the next Swedish general election. I was in Stockholm this weekend, fascinated by this year’s general election there, and can’t help wondering what Lindgren would have made of the result, or of the government there of the preceding four years.
Lindgren didn’t live to see or read of one of Pippi Longstocking’s least likely progenies, Lisbeth Salander aka the Girl with the Dragon Tattoo. A far-fetched comparison? Not at all. Stieg Larsson spoke of how he started by imagining how Pippi Longstocking might have grown up and how she might have handled the
world she grew up into. The two characters share many characteristics – independence, physical strength, unusual appearance and home background – and the Larsson books make frequent references to places (e.g. Salander names her apartment V.Kulla in a direct reference to the house, Villa Villekulla, where Pippi lives) and character names (the journalist Michael Blomkvist is named after
Lindgren’s character, Kalle Blomkvist).
The books and the drawings, the pictures and the videos, the toys and the reference books will all be put away again after October 16th but they remain available to consult on request in the beautiful surroundings of the Royal Library
where you’ll always be able to find Pippi Longstocking in Humlegården.
Stephen Keeler
York
17 September 2026
