launched various projects to promote reading: a publishers’ series of quality literature
(Barnbiblioteket Saga), annuals, magazines, collections of fairy tales, rhymes and short
stories. The illustrations, by Swedish artists like John Bauer, became important.
Furthermore, the epoch’s foremost authors were engaged in writing for children. The
world famous tale Nils Holgerssons underbara resa genom Sverige [The Wonderful
Adventures of Nils] (1906–1907) by Selma Lagerlöf (1858–1940) was part of a reader
project for the elementary schools, initiated by the teachers. The first naturalistic
children’s novel, Barnen ifnrå Frostmofjället [Children of the Moor] (1907) by Laura
Fitinghoff (1808–1908), also belongs to this first golden era of children’s literature.
The period between the wars has been regarded as a time of retrospection, but new
research is about to change that picture. Some of the girls’ stories reveal a surprisingly
radical and feminist view in describing girls’ development, maturity and plans for the
future. Among the interesting authors are Jeanna Oterdahl and Ester Blenda Nordström.
Modern child psychology and literary modernism had great impact on the new authors
that emerged after the Second World War. The 1940s witnessed a pluralism in both
motifs and genres. Earlier idyllic realism gave way to a more credible approach to
reality, but mention of the war (Sweden was neutral) is conspicuously lacking. The old
didactic concept of children’s literature was challenged, and, in fact deconstructed.
Astrid Lindgren’s (b.1907) literary breakthrough came in 1945, with the first book about
the strong and independent girl Pippi Longstocking. Lindgren’s diverse and extensive
output is based on well-known genres, but the familiar genre-patterns are twisted and
changed into new contexts. Existential problems are tackled through myth and fairy tale
in Mio, my Mio (1954), while the adventure story forms an allegory over life and death in
Bröderna Lejonhjärta [The Brothers Lionheart] (1973). Her novel, Ronja rövardotter
[Ronia, the Robber’s Daughter] (1981), an allegory of love and family dynamics,
expresses a powerful plea for life against violence. Lindgren’s impact on Swedish
children’s literature, both as an author and a publishing editor, is exceptional. She is
the most widely read Swedish author of our time, and her books have been translated into
more than sixty languages.
The modification of earlier forms also marks the poetry of Lennart Hellsing (b.1919),
whose extensive output of poems, lyrics, verses and short tales began in the mid–1940s
and continues in the 1990s. The texts oscillate between nonsense, modernistic
experiments and concentrated poetic imagery. One experimental book is Summa
summarum (1950), a multi-media art project bringing together text and picture, music
and movement.
A shift towards social and contemporary realism marks the output of the 1960s and
1970s. Inger (b.1930) and Lasse Sandberg (b.1924) have produced a number of picture
books, focusing on the small child’s view of reality. Gunilla Wolde (b. 1939) addressed
the not yet talking children with several brief and simply-drawn picture books such as
Thomas Goes Out (1969). New family situations are reflected in Gunilla Bergström’s (b.
1942) series of picture books about Alfie Atkins and his single father (from 1972).
Books for young adults focused on social and political (often global) injustices, family
problems, death, sex roles and sexuality. Gunnel Beckman’s (b.1910) Tillträde till festen
[Admission to the Feast] (1969) combines typical motifs. She also examined from the
viewpoint of young women hitherto forbidden subjects such as fear of pregnancy, and
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