WHEN ASTRID LINDGREN, the famous children’s author, ran up against the crushing Swedish tax laws, she fought back with the most effective weapon of all—her talent as a storyteller.
On a cold autumn night in Stockholm in 1941, a seven-year-old girl named Karin, who had been bedridden for weeks with a lung inflammation, called out to her mother. Karin had run through all the stories her parents knew, and she was beginning to wear out her mother’s patience. So when Astrid Lindgren came into her daughter’s room, she announced she was out of stock of stories and that Karin would have to produce a subject. Her daughter paused a moment, then blurted, “Tell me about Pippi Longstocking!”
Astrid Lindgren had never heard that peculiar name before, because Karin had just invented it. But sitting at her daughter’s bedside, she began to tell about a pig-tailed little girl who is strong enough to carry a horse, lives alone with a monkey named Mr Nilsson, sleeps with her feet on the pillow and generally does what no-one else would dare do.
That’s Pippi. And that was how Astrid Lindgren, then 34 and wife of Sture Lindgren of the Swedish Motorists Association, accidentally started a career that would make her the author of some 60 children’s books. Pippi has been translated into 28 languages (including Japanese, Afrikaans and SerboCroatian). In the Soviet Union, where more than 2.2 million Astrid-Lindgren books are in print, they are handed from child to child until they are dogeared. Pippi has even leapt on to the screen as the heroine of an immensely popular movie and later as the star of an international television series.
Esta historia es de la edición March 2021 de Reader's Digest India.
Comience su prueba gratuita de Magzter GOLD de 7 días para acceder a miles de historias premium seleccionadas y a más de 9,000 revistas y periódicos.
Ya eres suscriptor ? Conectar
Esta historia es de la edición March 2021 de Reader's Digest India.
Comience su prueba gratuita de Magzter GOLD de 7 días para acceder a miles de historias premium seleccionadas y a más de 9,000 revistas y periódicos.
Ya eres suscriptor? Conectar
From the King's Table to Street Food: A Food History of Delhi
Pushpesh Pant, one of India’s pre-eminent food writers, is back with a comprehensive food history of the capital.
Who Wants Coffee?
It’s bitter—but beloved around the world
Prevent The Pain Of Shingles
You don't have to suffer, as long as you take two important steps
The Best And Worst Diets For Your Heart
Dozens of diets are touted as ‘best’, but it’s easy to lose track of the fact that healthy eating needs to be about overall wellness, not just weight loss.
ME & MY SHELF
Journalist Sopan Joshi has worked in a science and environment framework for nearly three decades. His book Mangifera indica: A Biography of the Mango (Aleph Book Company) synthesizes the sensory appeal of India's favourite fruit with its elaborate cultural roots and natural history. He writes in English and Hindi.
SWITCHED
In 1962, nurses at a small Canadian hospital sent home two women with the wrong babies. Then, 50 years later, their children discovered the shocking mistake.
ECHOES OF THE PAST
A VISIT TO THE ANCIENT BARABAR CAVES IN BIHAR REVEALS A SURPRISING CONNECTION TO A LITERARY CLASSIC
Fathers of the Bride
A young woman finds a unique way to honour the many men who helped her survive her childhood
Fiction's Foresight
British-Bangladeshi author Manzu Islam's works reveal startling parallels to recent political upheavals in Bangladesh, begging the question: Besides helping us make sense of our world, can stories also offer a glimpse into the future?
It Happens ONLY IN INDIA
The Divine Defence Picture this: A tractor in Rajasthan‘s Banswara district,a group of loan agents closing in to seize it and the defaulting farmer and his family standing by.
