Astrid Anna Emilia Lindgren was born in 1907 in Vimmerby, Sweden, and grew up on the farm Näs. After leaving school in 1923 she worked for the Vimmerby Tidning and later became a secretary in Stockholm, where she met her future husband Sture Lindgren. Her breakthrough came in 1945 when the children’s book Pippi Langstrumpf, written as a birthday gift for her daughter, won the first prize from Rabén & Sjögren and was later adapted into film versions. From the late 1940s onward she released a steady stream of children’s titles, including Mio, mein Mio (1954), Karlsson vom Dach (1955) and Ronja Räubertochter (1981). Her works were translated into 107 languages and sold roughly 165 million copies, earning her the 1965 Swedish State Prize for Literature and the 1978 German Book Trade Peace Prize. Astrid Lindgren died in Stockholm in 2002, leaving a legacy marked by schools named after her and the annual Astrid Lindgren Memorial Award.
