Memory of the World; 2012 - unesdoc - Unesco

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Astrid Lindgren archives
Inscribed 2005
What is it
The archives of the renowned Swedish children’s writer
Astrid Lindgren (1907–2002), comprising original and
unpublished manuscripts, shorthand drafts, press
cuttings and correspondence.
Why was it inscribed
Astrid Lindgren was among the most popular children’s
writers of the 20th century and an enthusiastic advocate
for children’s rights. She helped to establish children’s
and young people’s literature as a global literary genre.
Where is it
Royal Library, Stockholm, Sweden
One of the most famous Swedes of the 20th century,
Astrid Lindgren is among the most translated and
best-selling authors in the world. Her achievements
in children’s literature and as an advocate of children’s
474 Astrid Lindgren archives
rights were acknowledged during her lifetime in more
than eighty Swedish and international awards and in four
honorary degrees. She remains a popular author in this
century and her books are still regarded as classics, even
after the vast growth in the numbers of children’s books
and the awareness of children’s literature as a separate
genre, which she herself helped foster.
Astrid Lindgren’s works are now translated into more
than eighty-five languages and her books have sold in
excess of 140 million copies across the world. The humour
and inventive imagination of her writing have ensured that
her characters – the best known of whom is probably Pippi
Longstocking – are perennially popular not only in her
native Sweden but around the world, and remain enduring
favourites of both children and adults today.
Astrid Lindgren lived in relative obscurity, but in the last
25 years of her life she chose to step into the public eye with
her support for children’s rights and children’s culture as
well as a number of other interests, using the affection,
respect and influence she enjoyed to further her chosen
causes. These included her opposition to factory-farming
methods and also to high levels of taxation – the subject