Salon

Last Wednesday was the 100th anniversary of the birth of the Swedish children's writer Astrid Lindgren. The author, who died in 2002, is now known all over the world; her books were translated into 88 languages and sold over 140 million copies. It all started in the mid-1940s, when Lindgren, a typist, started making up stories for her daughter Karin and later wrote them down in a book. That book, featuring a freckled girl called Pippi Longstocking, who always does what she wants, became one of the favorite children's stories of all time.

Lindgren was immensely popular in Russia -- more so than any other contemporary foreign children's author. Part of the credit should go to Liliana Lungina, who translated most of Lindgren's best books into vivid, idiomatic Russian, and coined many phrases that are widely used to this day. The most popular Lindgren's character in Russia turned out to be Karlsson-on-the-Roof, who is less of a favorite in his native Sweden. What is perhaps shocking for Russian readers is that Karlsson is perceived in the West as an ambiguous or outright bad person.

Karlsson is a mysterious little man who lives in a tiny house on a rooftop and flies with the help of a propeller on his back. He befriends Little Brother, a regular Stockholm kid who is bored and lonely. It's not clear, at least from the first book in the series, whether Karlsson is real or a figment of the boy's imagination. Karlsson is capricious, prone to egomania, breaks promises all the time and does not value anyone's time, feelings or judgment except his own. Not a very nice person, really. However, all these traits seem to sit well with Russian sensibilities and Karlsson became almost a national hero. Theatrical adaptations of Lindgren's book featured the very best actors -- several generations of Soviet kids remember Spartak Mishulin as Karlsson at the Satire Theater. The Russification of the book was completed in 1970, when two excellent cartoons were made by Soyuzmultfilm studio.

Lindgren's centenary was celebrated modestly in Russia, with a party at a Moscow bookstore and several newspaper articles. Her books, however, are still a staple of children's reading matter. Eduard Uspensky, the famous children's author, was recently commissioned by AST publishers to re-translate the Karlsson books. This attempt is likely to flop, since it's hard to beat Lungina. What's more, Uspensky doesn't know Swedish and so will simply be rewriting a translation. Nevertheless, it shows that Lindgren is still a hot commodity. I, for one, am very grateful to her for all the joy her books brought me as a child.