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LIFE AND FAMILY Tove Jansson was born and died in an author and comic strip artist. As a Finnish citizen whose Mother Tongue was Swedish , she was part of the Finland-Swedish minority. Thus, all her books were originally written in Swedish. The sea was Tove Jansson's greatest inspiration. When she was a child, her family lived in summer in the islands of the Gulf Of Finland . Later in life, she had her Atelier in Helsinki , but lived much of her life on a small Island called Klovharu , one of the Pellinki Islands near the town of Porvoo . Tove Jansson lived with her female partner, the Graphic Artist Tuulikki Pietilä . Her book ''Bildhuggarens dotter'' (1968, ''Sculptor's Daughter'') is a self-biographical account of her youth. PAINTER AND ILLUSTRATOR Tove Jansson studied at Stockholm Art School 1930 – 1933 and at the Graphic School of the Finnish Art Academy 1933 – 1937 . Although known first and foremost as an Author , Tove Jansson considered her careers as author and Painter to be of equal importance. She painted her whole life, changing style from the Classical Impressionism of her youth to the highly abstract modernist style of her later years. She worked as illustrator and as a crying baby in diapers, surrounded by Neville Chamberlain and other great Europe an leaders, who tried to calm the baby down by giving it slices of cake - Austria , Poland , Czechoslovakia , etc. In addition to her own Moomin books Jansson also illustrated Swedish translations of other classics such as J.R.R. Tolkien 's '' The Hobbit '' and Lewis Carroll 's '' Alice's Adventures In Wonderland ''. The figure of the Moomintroll appeared first in Tove Jansson's political cartoons, where it was used as a signature character near the artist's name. This " and living with her Swedish relations, her uncle tried to stop her pilfering food by telling her that a "Moomintroll" lived in the kitchen closet and breathed cold air down people's necks. AUTHOR Tove Jansson wrote and illustrated her first Moomin book, '' Småtrollen Och Den Stora översvämningen '' ( 1945 , " The Little Trolls And The Great Flood "), during World War II . She said later that the war had depressed her, and she had wanted to write something naïve and innocent. The publisher refused to use the name "Moomin" in the title of the book, afraid that it would confuse the public, and used the term "Little Trolls" instead. The first book was hardly noticed, but the next Moomin books '' Comet In Moominland '' ( 1946 ) and '' Finn Family Moomintroll '' ( 1948 (English title - the literal translation of the original title is "The Magician's Hat") made her famous. The style of the Moomin books changed as time went by. The first books, up to '' Melodrama . The characters in these books do not undergo any psychological development. '' Moominland In Midwinter '' marks a turning point in the series. The books take on more realistic settings ("realistic" in the context of the Moomin universe) and the characters start to acquire some psychological depth. ''Moominland in Midwinter'' focuses on Moomintroll, who wakes up in the middle of the winter (Moomins sleep from October to March ), and has to cope with the strange and unfriendly world he finds. The short story collection '' Tales From Moominvalley '' ( 1962 ) and the novels '' Moominpappa At Sea '' ( 1965 ) and '' Moominvalley In November '' ( 1970 ) are serious and psychologically searching books, far removed from the light-heartedness and cheerful humor of ''Finn Family Moomintroll''. After ''Moominvalley in November'' Tove Jansson quit writing about Moomins and started writing for adults. Besides the Moomin novels and short stories, Tove Jansson also wrote and illustrated three original and highly popular picture books: '' Moomin, Mymble And Little My '' ( 1952 ), '' Who Will Comfort Toffle? '' ( 1960 ) and '' The Dangerous Journey '' ( 1977 ). COMIC STRIP ARTIST In 1952 , after ''Comet in Moominland'' and ''Finn Family Moomintroll'' had been translated into English , a British publisher asked if Tove Jansson would be interested in drawing comic strips about the Moomins. Jansson had already drawn a long Moomin comic adventure, '' Mumintrollet Och Jordens Undergång '' ("Moomintrolls and the End of the World"), based loosely on ''Comet in Moominland'', for the Finland-Swedish newspaper '' Ny Tid '', and she accepted the offer. The comic strip ''Moomintroll'', started in 1954 in the '' Evening News '', a newspaper for the London area and London commuters (no longer in business). Tove Jansson drew 21 long Moomin stories from 1954 to 1959 , writing them at first by herself and then with her brother Lars Jansson. She eventually gave the strip up because the daily work of a comic artist did not leave her time to write books and paint, but Lars took over the strip and continued it until 1975 . JANSSON'S CULTURAL HERITAGE In 1966 Tove Jansson won the Hans Christian Andersen Award for her contributions to Children's Literature . Jansson's Moomin books, originally written in Swedish, have been translated into 33 languages. After the '' Kalevala '' and books by Mika Waltari , they are the most widely translated works of Finnish Literature . The Moomin Museum in Tampere displays much of Janssons work around the Moomins. There is also a Moomin theme park in Naantali . BIBLIOGRAPHY The Moomin books:
Other books:
Memoirs:
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