2007:2

Patricia Crampton wrote in the 1991 SBR Children’s Literature Supplement about how fortunate she felt in the 1970s to be able to translate so many of Astrid Lindgren’s beautifully written books. Now a somewhat younger set of translators will get an opportunity to add this to their own experience, as Oxford University Press embarks on an ambitious project to retranslate many of Lindgren’s best-loved books. This autumn has seen publication of a lavish new centenary edition of Pippi Longstocking, translated by Tiiina Nunnally and illustrated by Lauren Child, which one hopes will introduce Astrid Lindgren to a new generation of children. Scheduled for publication in 2008 are the three Emil books, two Children of Troublemaker Street titles, and the three Karlson on the Roof books, with their anarchic eponymous “hero”, described by our contributor Paul Binding as “that eccentric, motor-propelled being”.

SBR is pleased to celebrate Astrid’s hundredth birthday with not only Paul Binding’s perceptive article but also two translations of pieces that have not been available in English before: “Never Violence!”, a seminal speech that expresses not only Lindgren’s pacifism but her belief that the way we bring up our children will have a profound bearing on the chances for future world peace; and her affectionate account of her parents’ courtship, “Samuel August from Sevedstorp and Hanna from Hult”.

The Lindgren centenary on 14 November 2007 is being celebrated around the world. Astrid Lindgren wrote 88 books and is Sweden’s most acclaimed children’s author. Her books have been translated into 76 languages; Pippi Longstocking alone is published in 57 languages. Lindgren always stood firmly on the side of the child and many of her characters challenge the adult world, as she did herself in her work as a campaigner on many issues.

The theme of writing for children extends through into the extract from Niklas Rådström’s The Guest, which embroiders on the historical fact of a visit paid by Hans Christian Andersen, arguably Denmark’s counterpart to Astrid Lindgren, to Charles Dickens in Kent in 1858.

A vulnerable child features, too, in the nightmarishly atmospheric opening scene from Johan Theorin’s In the Twilight Hour, which has become a major best-seller in Sweden. Three further books are planned in the series, set on the island of Öland; the first two titles at least will eventually be available in English.

Meanwhile, there is cheering news from Sweden about translation subsidies. The government’s budget announcement for 2008 promises the reintroduction of a subsidy scheme, with an increase in funds to seven million kronor annually. This sum will cover grants for translation of both fiction and non-fiction, sample translations, plus support of translators and events abroad. The scheme will be administered by Sweden’s Arts Council (Statens kulturråd) rather than the Swedish Institute. Details have yet to be finalized, but it seems likely that a new centre for Swedish literature will be set up.