Tove Jansson

Tove Marika Jansson (Finland Swedish: [ˈtuːve ˈjɑːnsːon] ; 9 August 1914 – 27 June 2001) was a Finland-Swedish author, novelist and comic strip author, painter and illustrator. Brought up by artistic parents, her mother an illustrator and postage stamp designer, her father a sculptor, Jansson studied art from 1930 to 1938 in Helsinki, Stockholm, and Paris. She held her first solo art exhibition in 1943. Over the same period, she penned short stories and articles for publication, and subsequently drew illustrations for book covers, advertisements, and postcards. She continued her work as an artist and writer for the rest of her life.

Jansson wrote the Moomin novel series for children, starting with the 1945 The Moomins and the Great Flood. The following two books, Comet in Moominland and Finn Family Moomintroll, published in 1946 and 1948 respectively, were highly successful, and sales of the first book increased correspondingly. For her work as a children's author she received the Hans Christian Andersen Medal in 1966; among her many later awards was the Selma Lagerlöf Prize in 1992. Her Moomin stories have been adapted for the theatre, the cinema, and as an opera.

She held a solo exhibition of paintings in 1955, and five more between 1960 and 1970. She carried out several commissions for murals in public buildings around Finland between 1945 and 1984. She created the illustrations both for her own books and for editions of classics including Alice's Adventures in Wonderland and The Hobbit.

Starting with the semi-autobiographical Bildhuggarens dotter (The Sculptor's Daughter) in 1968, Jansson wrote six novels, including the admired Sommarboken (The Summer Book), and five short story collections for adults.