In order to introduce low-price quality literature for children, ‘Børnenes Bogsamling’, a
publisher’s series (of classics, fairy tales and so on), was founded in 1896 (Sweden
followed the example a few years later). A number of children’s periodicals, magazines
and annuals also emerged.
Teachers have played an important role in Danish children’s literature during the
twentieth century, both as critics and authors; indeed, the relationship between
children’s books and the school system is a characteristic feature of Danish children’s
literature. Children’s novels between 1900 and 1945 contain three myths, all connected
to the attitudes and aims of the school: the myth of the good man, the myth of the
family without inner problems and the myth about the fair and righteous society (Winge
1976). Books were written in a traditional and often didactic mode, aimed either for girls
or boys. Among the popular writers were Bertha Holst (girls’ stories) and Walter
Christmas (boys’ stories). Karin Michaélis (1872–1950), considered as the most
innovative writer, created a girl’s Bildungsroman with her widely translated Bibi series,
beginning with Bibi: A Little Danish Girl, in 1927. (An asterisk indicates that the book
has been published in English.)
In the field of picture books a naïvistic and child-oriented pictorial style developed in
the 1930–1940s, influenced by Russian poster design and its use of bright colours and
clear line-drawing technique. The issue at stake was the little child’s needs and inner
yearnings. Among the most famous books are Palle alene i Verden [Palle Alone in the
World] by Arne Ungermann (pictures) and Jens Sigsgaard (text) in 1942 and Egon
Mathiesen’s Mis med de blå Øjne [The Cat with the Blue Eyes] (1949). Mathiesen (1907–
1976) published a number of picture books with the deliberate aim of creating a
rhythmic interaction of text, pictures and colours. Two highly influential names in the
picture book genre are Ib Spang Olsen (b.1921), with his experimental forms, one
artistic highlight is Det lille lokomotiv [The Little Train] (1954) and Svend Otto S. (b.
1916), a popular illustrator of fairy tales, who also has published a string of picture
books of his own. Both have been active into the 1990s and their work has influenced
the richness and variation of pictorial style in modern Danish picture books. Erik Hjorth
Nielsen (b. 1937) works in the naturalistic tradition, Jan Mogensen (b. 1945) has
reinterpreted the tales of H.C.Andersen; others have revitalised the naïvistic concept of
the 1930s. Notable in the new generation of illustrators are Dorte Karrebæk (b.1946)
and Lilian Brøgger (b.1950), both showing an obvious interest in developing the picture
as a narrative medium.
Society was consciously involved in children’s reading in the late 1960s. The close
relationship between children’s literature and the school and library systems has
resulted in the publication of a lot of easy-to-read books and depictions of children’s
everyday life in contemporary society. Thøger Birkeland (b.1922) is one of the most
prominent contemporary realists, several of his books being accounts of daily family life.
The year 1967 proved a milestone, both in terms of motif and literary expression. Preben
Ramløv (1919–1988) examined slavery in the West Indies in the nineteenth century by
means of magic realism in the novel Massa Peter. Cecil Bødker (b.1927), one of
Denmark’s internationally best known modern children’s authors, published her first
book in the historical series about the boy Silas: her protagonist is both good and bad,
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