Shocking Astrid Lindgren. How a Swedish storyteller shocked the world

Swedish children's writer Astrid Lindgren (née Anna Emilia Eriksson) was born on November 14, 1907 in southern Sweden, in the small town of Vimmerby in the province of Småland, into a farmer's family.

After graduating from high school, Astrid took up journalism and worked for the local newspaper Wimmerby Tidningen. Then she moved to Stockholm, was educated as a stenographer.

In December 1926, Astrid had a son, Lars. Due to the lack of livelihood and lack of work, the young mother had to give her son to the family of foster parents in Denmark.

In 1927 she got a job as a secretary at the Torsten Lindfors office.

In 1928, Astrid got a job as a secretary at the Royal Automobile Club.

In April 1931, she married her boss, Sture Lindgren, and took her husband's surname.

After marriage, Astrid Lindgren was able to take her son, whom her husband adopted. She devoted herself entirely to caring for Lars, and then of her daughter Karin, who was born in 1934. In fits and starts, she took up secretarial work, composing fairy tales for family magazines and Christmas calendars.

In 1944, Lindgren entered the Raben & Shegren competition for the best book for girls and won second prize for Britt-Marie Pours Out Her Soul and a publishing contract for its publication.

Astrid Lindgren jokingly recalled that one of the reasons that prompted her to write were the cold Stockholm winters and the illness of her little daughter Karin, who kept asking her mother to tell her something. It was then that mother and daughter came up with a mischievous girl with red pigtails, Pippi Long Stocking. The stories about Pippi were later included in the book that Lindgren gave her daughter on her birthday, and in 1945 the first book about Pippi was published by Raben & Shegren.

1940-1950s - heyday of Lindgren's creative activity. She wrote the Pippi Longstocking trilogy (1945-1952) and the story of the detective Kalle Blumkvist (1946-1953).

Astrid Lindgren's books have been translated into 91 languages ​​of the world. The most popular plots related to the girl Pippi Longstocking and Carlson formed the basis of many theatrical productions and film adaptations.

All over the world, created by a writer.

Soon after the death of the writer in 2002, the Swedish government in order to promote the development of children's and youth literature was - one of the largest in the field of literature for children and adolescents. The amount of the remuneration is 5 million SEK (500 thousand euros).

The material was prepared on the basis of information from RIA Novosti and open sources

Cheerful and independent Astrid Lindgren can be safely called the prototype of her famous literary character Pippi Longstocking. Despite her love of reading and good grades, the naughty girl always had problems with discipline: Astrid preferred boyish fun to needlework lessons.

“Oh, how we knew how to play! - the author of "Carlson" recalled her childhood years. “We climbed the tallest trees and jumped between the rows of planks at the sawmill. We climbed high on the roof and balanced on it, and if only one of us stumbled, our games could stop forever. " Astrid retained an unusual passion for games and self-indulgence until old age. “The Law of Moses, thank God, does not forbid old women to climb trees,” said the famous storyteller in her old age, overcoming another tree. A Soviet translator Lilianna Lungina She recalled her meeting with the eminent author: “When she came to us, she pulled our six-year-old son Zhenya out of his crib and began to play with him on the carpet. we had to answer her in kind ... "

Astrid (third from left) with her parents, brother and sisters. Photo: Commons.wikimedia.org

In her youth, Astrid's shocking behavior caused even more bewilderment among those around her. At the age of 17, the unauthorized young lady cut her hair short, which shocked the inhabitants of her native town. This is how the storyteller herself recalled this: “People came up to me on the street and asked me to take off my hat to look at my haircut. Some admired my hairstyle, but they were clearly in the minority ... "

Despite numerous requests from her father not to disgrace the family, Astrid did not even think of pretending to be a "good girl." The girl understood that with the appearance that nature gave her, her chances of a successful marriage were low, and she undertook to forge her own happiness.

The first step on this path was working for a local newspaper as a reporter. However, by the age of 18, Astrid found out that she was pregnant ...

Astrid Lindgren, 1924 Photo: Public Domain

"Lonely and Poor"

The Swedish storyteller never revealed the name of her son's father, and for many years the rebel felt guilty for having sent the little one Larsa to be raised by foster parents, and then - by grandparents.

To hide her dark past, Astrid moved from little Vimmerby to Stockholm, where there were more job opportunities. “I am lonely and poor,” the storyteller wrote to her brother at that time. Gunnaru... - Lonely, because that is how it is, and poor, because all my property consists of one Danish era. I am afraid of the coming winter. "

In 1928, luck smiled on the rebel again: the director of the Royal Automobile Club took her to the place of secretary. And two years later, he also proposed to Astrid: “He admitted that he fell in love with me at first sight and all these two years did not take his eyes off me. I told him everything about myself and, of course, about my son. He did not hesitate for a second: “I love you, which means that I also love everything that is part of your life. Lars will be our son, take him to Stockholm "". The benefactor was called Sture Lindgren.

Of course, for Astrid it was not love at first sight, but she accepted the offer and remained grateful and loyal to Stura for the rest of her life. Next to him, the rebel turned into a respectable mistress and gave her husband a daughter Karin. But even that did not make her look like well-bred Swedish mothers.

"Not instructive enough"

Children have always been proud of their bully mom, who gladly took part in all the games. And once before their very eyes, she jumped on the tram at full speed (for which she was fined by the conductor).

Astrid's tales were just as “wrong” and “not instructive enough” from the educators' point of view. At first, the writer composed them for her children, and then decided to send the manuscript to a literary competition. Soon after the victory, the books of the Swedish housewives gained popularity all over the world, but if the stories about the adventures of Carlson and Pippi aroused delight among children, then among adults - fear. Still, because the author took a new position for that time in children's literature: instead of tongue-tied teachings - a heart-to-heart talk. “A children's book should just be good. And that's all. I don’t know any other recipes, ”Astrid defended her work.

Due to the fact that Carlson "provokes children to be disobedient and causes fear and disgust in relation to nannies and housekeepers", in many US states, this tale was banned. But not in the USSR: up to 80% of all Karlson's publications were published here. The author herself was always amazed at the popularity of her books in Pushkin's homeland and in her letter to Soviet children she wrote: "Probably, Karlson's popularity in your country is explained by the fact that there is something Russian, Slavic in him."

Asteroid Lindgren

In the eighties of the twentieth century, Astrid stopped composing new fairy tales, but did not turn into a typical pensioner. She answered hundreds of emails every day.

Astrid did not live to see her century only 6 years old, but she preferred to return to childhood again and again. Even despite the fact that by the end of her life the writer's hearing and eyesight were greatly weakened, her sense of humor never failed her. When the storyteller found out that a small planet was named in her honor, she joked that now it could be called "Asteroid Lindgren". When Astrid was informed that she had received the title of “Person of the Year”, the writer said: “I, deaf, half-blind and almost out of my mind old woman, -“ Person of the Year ”? For the future, I advise you to be more careful - lest the general public find out about it ... "

Astrid Anna Emilia Lindgren- Swedish writer, author of the famous books "The Kid and Carlson Who Lives on the Roof" and the tetralogy about Pippi Longstocking.

Was born November 14, 1907 in the town of Vimmerby in southern Sweden, in a family of peasant farmers. As the writer herself stated in her autobiographical collection My Fictions (1971), she had a happy childhood, full of games and adventures. After graduating from high school, Astrid briefly worked as a journalist for a local newspaper, and then left for Stockholm, where she studied to be a stenographer. In parallel, she worked in her specialty. She soon successfully married Sture Lindgren. At that time, she already had a little son, Lars.

Immediately after marriage, Astrid left her job to take care of her son and newborn daughter Karin (1934). According to the writer, her first tetralogy story, Pippi Longstocking (1945), was published thanks to her daughter. When the girl got sick, she had to tell all sorts of stories every night. So, once Karin ordered a story about Pippi Longstocking, whose name she invented on the go. The book was a resounding success. Astrid's housewife was immediately offered a job at a children's publishing house and awarded several awards. Today her works have been translated into many languages ​​in 60 or more countries around the world. The story about Carlson also appeared thanks to her daughter, who often talked about a mysterious man flying through the window.

In addition to children's books, the writer sometimes created romantic stories, for example, The Brothers Lionheart (1979), as well as children's detectives and roguish stories about Emil of Lönneberg. Astrid Lindgren became the first children's writer in her country to receive a literary achievement award. The greatest creative flowering of the writer fell on the 1940-1950s. One of Lindgren's best works was the tale-tale of lonely and abandoned children Mio, My Mio (1954). In her free time from writing, she hosted various talk shows and quizzes on Swedish television and radio.

We wish you good luck
In that unknown and new world
So that you don't feel lonely
So that the angels don't leave.

Biography

Astrid Lindgren's biography is the story of a happy, kind, talented, hardworking woman. She was not only an amazing talented writer, but also a wonderful child psychologist of sorts. Her progressive - in those days - views on raising children were often taken with hostility by conservative educators and children's writers. They not only believed that Lindgren's stories were not instructive enough, but they were convinced that they advocated permissiveness and disobedience. Nevertheless, Lindgren's tales are still read by millions of adults and children, and Astrid Lindgren herself is popular not only in her country, but all over the world.

Lindgren was born in a small Swedish town. After school, sixteen-year-old Astrid worked in a local newspaper, but soon a serious event happened in her life - she became pregnant. A young unmarried girl, fearing condemnation, left for Stockholm, practically without money and connections. There she continued to work, and when her son was born, she was forced to give the child to a foster family, since she could not feed him. This was a difficult decision for Lindgren, but her early marriage allowed her to take a boy named Lars into her family. In the following years, she devoted herself entirely to taking care of the house and children - in marriage, she had a daughter named Karen. It was Karen who inspired her mother, the future world famous writer, to write fairy tales. Often, when Karen was sick, Lindgren would sit by her bed and write different stories to entertain her daughter. It was Karen who invented the heroine Pippi Longstocking, and her mother only had to tell her daughter a story, and then write a book based on it. Pippi was not Lindgren's first literary experience - in parallel with taking care of the house, Astrid wrote notes, small fairy tales. The first book published by her was the story "British Marie pours out her soul", which helped her to get not only a contract, but also an editorial position in the publishing house. The further rise in the literary biography of Lindgren was already completely dependent on herself - a hardworking woman in 5-6 years wrote a trilogy about Pippi, several books for girls and plays, collections of fairy tales, and many others. others. A few years later, the heroes of Lindgren helped the former housewife to earn a huge fortune. Lindgren's books were filmed, staged plays in theaters, translated into various languages ​​of the world, and the writer Lindgren herself became a very popular person in her country, whom children and adults of all ages knew and loved.

Lindgren's death came at 94. Lindgren's cause of death was natural; in the last years of her life, Lindgren was sick and gradually faded away. Lindgren's funeral took place a month later, due to the peculiarities of the funeral services in Sweden. Lindgren's grave, according to her will, is in the cemetery of her hometown of Vimmerby.

Life line

November 14, 1907 Date of birth Astrid Lindgren (Astrid Anna Emilia Lindgren, née Ericsson).
1926 g. Moving to Stockholm.
December 1926 Birth of Lindgren's son Lars.
1927 g. Working at the Royal Auto Club, meeting Sture Lindgren.
April 1931 Wedding with Sture Lindgren.
1934 g. Birth of daughter Karin.
1944 g. Prize for the novel "Britt-Marie Pours Out Her Soul."
1945 g. Publication of the book "Pippi Longstocking", work as an editor of children's literature at the publishing house "Raben and Sjogren".
1946 g. Publication of the story "Kalle Blumkvist plays".
1947 g. A screen version of the stories about Kalle Blumkvist.
1952 g. Death of Astrid Lindgren's husband.
1954 g. Writing the story "Mio, my Mio!"
1955 g. The publication of the book "Kid and Carlson".
1958 g. Lindgren was awarded the Hans Christian Andersen Medal.
1962 g. The release of the book "Carlson, who lives on the roof, has flown again."
1968 year The release of the book "Carlson, who lives on the roof, is playing pranks again."
1969 year Received the Swedish State Prize for Literature.
1969 year Production by the Royal Dramatic Theater of "Carlson Who Lives on the Roof".
1978 year World Prize of the German Book Trade for the novel "The Brothers of the Lionheart", the award of the Albert Schweitzer Medal.
1984 year Soviet film adaptation of the book "Pippi Longstocking".
1987 year Release of the film "Mio, my Mio!", Filmed by the USSR jointly with Norway and Sweden.
January 28, 2002 Date of death of Astrid Lindgren.
8 March 2002 The funeral of Astrid Lindgren.

Memorable places

1. Vimmerby, Sweden, where Lindgren was born.
2. Astrid Lindgren's house in Stockholm.
3. Cathedral of St. Nicholas in Stockholm, where the farewell to Astrid Lindgren took place.
4. Amusement Park "Astrid Lindgren's World", located in Vimmerby.
5. Monument to Astrid Lindgren in Stockholm near the Lindgren Museum.
6. Astrid Lindgren's Junibacken Museum in Stockholm.
7. Cemetery in Vimmerby, where Lindgren is buried.

Episodes of life

Once Astrid Lindgren wrote a letter to the President of the USSR Mikhail Gorbachev with the words: "I'm afraid of war, are you?" Gorbachev answered the world famous children's writer: "Me too."

Astrid Lindgren has always taken care of children. Her books were often instructive, and not so much for children as for their parents. Also, the writer founded a children's hospital near Stockholm. At the 1978 Peace Prize, she gave a speech entitled "Not Violence." In it, she told a story about a boy whom his mother wanted to punish and sent for the rods. The boy did not find the rod, but he brought a stone to his mother, thinking that if his mother wanted to hurt him, then a stone would also work. Mom burst into tears and put the stone on the shelf. Lindgren ended her speech with the words: "It would be nice for all of us to put a small pebble on the kitchen shelf as a reminder to children and ourselves - no violence!"

Lindgren was not a politician, but she had an influence on the political life of her country, as she was a very respected person in Sweden. For example, her tale of a cow contributed to the animal welfare law, which is even called "Lindgren's Law."

The last years of her life, Lindgren was ill, she became blind and almost lost her sight, so she rarely went out and almost did not give interviews. Nevertheless, the writer tried to stay abreast of what was happening in the world, and also annually personally presented the prize for literature, named in her honor.

Covenant

“Working for me all my life has been the greatest pleasure. In the evenings I happily thought that tomorrow morning would come and I would be able to write again. "

"Fear a quiet life!"

Telecast about Astrid Lindgren

Condolences

"In everything she did, common sense was combined with directness and warmth, and in this she was unique."
Suzanne Eman-Sunden, co-editor of the book on Astrid Lindgren

“The work of your famous compatriot is not only the property of Swedish literature. Several generations of children from many countries have grown up on her surprisingly light and witty tales. They are known and loved in Russia. The best memory of Astrid Lindgren - a wonderful writer and truly great storyteller - will be her books that teach us to rejoice and fantasize, appreciate kindness and friendship. "
Vladimir Putin, President of the Russian Federation

“Astrid Lindgren and her work have meant a lot to all of us, children and adults. Her works have delighted readers not only in Sweden, but all over the world, awakening the best feelings in them. The setting and characters in her fairy tales were so different from everyday life that it was often impossible to predict what she would talk about. For my family and I, meetings with Astrid Lindgren, as well as with her fairy tales, were moments of celebration. We will all miss Astrid Lindgren, but we are glad that she continues to live on in Pippi Longstocking, Madiken, Mio, the Lionheart brothers and her other heroes. We want to thank Astrid Lindgren for her great and invaluable work throughout her life. "
Carl XVI Gustaf, King of Sweden

Perhaps the children's books of the famous storyteller Lindgren would not have been so poignant if young Astrid Erickson had not experienced separation from her newborn son, who was born out of wedlock. The writer hid these details for a long time for the sake of her first-born Lars, and only now the full biography of Astrid Lindgren has been published, shedding light on the events of 90 years ago.

Astrid Erickson, early 1920s. (Photo: Private Archive / Saltkrå kan)

In 1920s Sweden, journalists did not have to go to college. The training took place in the editorial offices themselves: it was generally accepted that a person was either born for this work or not.

The fact that Astrid Erickson got a job at Wimmerby Tiding at the age of 15 was due to the editor-in-chief and owner of the newspaper, Reinhold Bloomberg. Several years before that, he had the opportunity to be convinced of the girl's outstanding literary abilities. Astrid attended school with Bloomberg's children, and one day, in August or September 1921, teacher Tengström showed Bloomberg an extraordinary composition written by thirteen-year-old Astrid Erickson.

Editor Bloomberg has not forgotten either the composition or the author. More than a year later, in the summer of 1923, having passed an exam in a real school, Astrid Erickson entered the Vimmerby Tiding as an intern. A monthly salary of sixty kronor was then the usual salary for interns in Sweden - for this money they not only wrote obituaries, small notes and reviews, but also sat on the phone, kept journals, proofread and ran to the city on errands.

Astrid's first man

A seemingly promising career as a journalist ended abruptly in August 1926, when it became impossible to hide the fact that the Vimmerby Tiding trainee was in a position. The child's father was neither a former classmate, nor a young peasant, nor a business trip, oh no. The father was the owner and editor-in-chief of "Wimmerby Tiding", almost fifty-year-old Reinhold Bloomberg, who was married for the second time after the death in 1919 of his first wife, who left him with seven children.

Reinhold Bloomberg (1877-1947), owner and editor of Wimmerby Tiding from 1913-1939 and father of Astrid Lindgren's first child. (Photo: Private archive)

And so this enterprising and influential man in 1925 fell in love with a seventeen-year-old intern and began to look after her beautifully. Astrid has only read about this until now. The girl did not reject the fan and entered into a love affair with him, which, for obvious reasons, was kept secret and lasted more than six months, until Astrid's pregnancy in March 1926.

She herself was rather struck by such an extraordinary interest in her "soul and body", as Reinhold wrote to her, than in love. But there was something unknown, dangerous and thus attractive in these relations, Astrid Lindgren said in 1993: "Girls are such fools. Nobody had seriously fallen in love with me until then, he was the first. And of course it seemed to me fascinating."

It also broke all the taboos. Not only because of Astrid Erickson's utter inexperience and naivety in the sexual area, but also because Reinhold Bloomberg was a married man in the process. In addition, the editor-in-chief of Wimmerby Tiding and respected tenants Erikson, Astrid's parents, were not only familiar, but also worked together several times.

"I wanted a child, but not his father"

The exact circumstances of Astrid's romance with her boss, who at that time no longer lived with his wife Olivia Bloomberg, are unknown. During the life of Astrid Lindgren, the general public did not recognize the name of the child's father. Astrid wanted to keep the secret as long as possible. First of all for Lasse's sake. "I knew what I wanted and what I did not want. I wanted a child, but not his father."

Astrid Lindgren's own, complete and accurate interpretation of the events of 1926 has never been published, but was thoroughly retold by her biographer Margareta Strömstedt in The Great Storyteller. The Life of Astrid Lindgren, published in 1977 on the occasion of her 70th birthday. Before that, for thirty years, the impression was created that the girl came to Stockholm to study, there a few years later she met Sture Lindgren, whom she married, after which she gave birth to two children, Lasse and Karin.

However, things were not so simple. Astrid was much more confused about her relationship with Reinhold than she later admitted. Bloomberg, for his part, was still in love and in 1927 paid for their joint trip to the baby. Only in March 1928 did Astrid finally decide and abandoned relations with Lasse's father, announcing that their paths would now part ways forever.

Storgatan, 30, Vimmerby. The editor-in-chief Bloomberg lives here with his family and is the headquarters of his newspaper in the 1920s. Around the corner is a printing house where a newspaper is printed every Wednesday and Saturday. (Photo: East Gotland Regional Museum)

From the very beginning of the relationship, Reinhold wanted to completely own Astrid, which she absolutely did not like. After her move to Stockholm in September 1926, he reproached her with the fact that she went to study as a secretary without consulting him. Astrid's deliberately superficial letters disappointed the demanding romantic from Wimmerby, who drew up a plan for their joint future (he was hampered only by a prolonged divorce) and did not tolerate interference: “You write so little about yourself. Is it not clear that I want to know a lot, a lot more about you? ".

How could you?

What Astrid found in Reinhold, besides the fact that he was her first man and the father of an unborn child, was asked not only by her mother Hanna, but also by Lindgren herself in old age. "Neither myself, nor Hannah, I could not answer the question 'how could you?". But when could young, inexperienced, naive fools answer it? Not a beauty at all, the writer assured, she “was still in demand in the market of desire.” I read and thought with some envy: “Oh, I wish I could be like her!” Well, I succeeded. did not foresee ".

Behind this quote was hidden not only awareness of their actions and a sense of guilt, but also the accumulated resentment against a more experienced man, who perfectly understood what risk he himself and especially his young beloved were exposed to without taking advantage of it. Later, she angrily reprimanded elderly Reinhold Bloomberg in a letter dated February 22, 1943: "I had not the slightest idea about contraception, and therefore could not understand the extent of the monstrous irresponsibility of your attitude towards me."

The explanation for this ignorance is to be found in Puritanism, which in the 1920s still dominated public relations policy. Swedish law prohibited any advertising or public mention of contraceptives that anyone could buy provided they knew they existed. This is why only a few Swedes - especially in the provinces - understood how to avoid unwanted pregnancies.

Eighteen-year-old Astrid Erickson in the fall of 1926 (Photo: Private archive / Saltkrå kan)

Astrid Lindgren paid a high price for her romance with Bloomberg. She lost her job and the prospect of finding a place in a newspaper larger than Wimmerby Tiding in the future. And in the fall of 1926, when the pregnancy became difficult to hide, Astrid had to leave her home and city and go to Stockholm. Lindgren described parting with Vimmerby as a joyous escape: “Being the object of gossip is like sitting in a pit with snakes, and I decided to leave this pit as soon as possible. , not kicked out. Not at all! I kicked myself out. "

Where to secretly give birth to an unmarried woman

Astrid enrolled in shorthand and typing courses and one day accidentally read about a woman lawyer from the capital who helps unmarried pregnant women in difficult circumstances. Astrid found Eva Anden and talked not only about her own sad situation, but also about the secret engagement with Reinhold and about the divorce process, which increasingly influenced the situation with childbirth (Bloomberg's wife did her best to collect evidence of her husband's infidelity and was already very successful in this) ...

The lawyer advised the girl to go to Copenhagen and give birth at the Royal Hospital - the only one in Scandinavia where the names of the child's parents could be kept secret and from where the information was not received by the Population Registration Department or other state bodies. Eva Anden also advised Astrid to keep the baby in the Danish capital with a foster mother until she and Reinhold can take him to Sweden. The lawyer contacted Marie Stevens, an intelligent and caring woman who, together with her teenage son Karl, helped Swedish mothers before and after childbirth.

Eva Anden (1886-1970) is Sweden's first female lawyer. In 1915 she founded her own law firm. (Photo: Eric Holmen / TT)

It was Karl who took Astrid to the Royal Hospital in a taxi when the contractions began. Three years later, on January 10, 1930, the same calm, reliable Karl took the three-year-old Lasse by train to Stockholm, to “mother Lasse,” as he and Fru Stevens consistently and unobtrusively called Astrid at home.

After Lars was born

The boy saw the light on December 4 at ten o'clock in the morning, and a few days after giving birth, Astrid with little Lars Bloomberg in her arms returned to Mrs Stevens and did not part with him until December 23. On the eve of 1926, Astrid said goodbye to her child, Aunt Stevens and Karl. Her path led home to Nes, and then north to Stockholm.

This scene was well remembered by the adoptive mother. Never before had Marie Stevens met a woman who, having given birth in such circumstances, would be so happy about her child. Many years later, in 1950, when the boy grew up and had a son himself, an old adoptive mother from Copenhagen sent Astrid a letter, where, by the way, she wrote: "You fell in love with your baby from the first moment."

Villa Stevns is 5-6 km from the center of Copenhagen. There, on the second floor, Lasse spent the first three years of his life. (Photo: Private archive)

In January 1927, Astrid continued her studies at the Bar-Lok School, where she taught typing, accounting, bookkeeping, shorthand and business correspondence. In the photographs of those years, Astrid Erickson is most often sad and unhappy. The penetrating happiness and euphoria that came after a successful childbirth were replaced by despondency, pain and regret.

She had a room in the boarding house, a steel bed, clothes and, as a rule, there was enough food, which she was obliged not least to parcels from home: about once every month and a half, a basket full of supplies from Hannah's pantry arrived. For this, the eldest daughter immediately thanked in letters: “What a luxury - to cut off a decent piece of bread, spread it with first-class Wimmerby butter and put a piece of mother’s cheese on top, and then eat it all. I experience this pleasure every morning, while there is still something in the basket- it remains. "

Melancholy, pessimism, and occasional suicidal thoughts were most felt when Astrid was alone in the big city on long Sundays. Incessant reflections on Lasse early in the morning drove her out into the street, and everything that on other days was repressed and drowned in numerous worries emerged from the subconscious.

And on weekdays, a disappointed twenty-year-old mother without a child became energetic, sociable Fröken Erikson, who knew how to get along with everyone around. She typed in a blind way, without looking, sliding her fingers over the keyboard, was good at shorthand and was not afraid of correspondence in English and German. All these skills later came in handy for Astrid Lindgren - a writer, editor, and for family and friends - a diligent correspondent.

Work in Stockholm and travel to Copenhagen to visit my son

At the first job, where Astrid entered in 1927, she was supposed to pick up the phone, say: "The radio department of the Swedish Book Trade Center!" - listen and apologize. She had to take complaints from disgruntled customers who hadn't been able to tune their new radio — the latest in technology.

During the interview, the head of the office made it clear that after the flight of the previous employee, he no longer needed nineteen, but Astrid Erickson did what she always knew how to do excellently: she sold herself. She turned on charm, humor, energy and convinced the employer that she can be relied on, even though she is only nineteen.

"I was paid 150 kroons a month. That doesn't make you fat. And you can't go to Copenhagen much, and most of all I wanted to go there. But sometimes with the help of savings, loans and mortgages, I managed to scrape together money for a ticket."

Astrid Erickson's old passport with numerous blue and red stamps testifies to the fact that Lars Bloomberg's mother traveled from Stockholm to Copenhagen and back twelve to fifteen times in three years. She often took the cheapest Friday night train; a round-trip ticket cost 50 crowns, and you had to sit all night. In the morning she would come to Copenhagen Central Station, hop on the tram and enter the Villa Stevns gate before noon. There were 24 hours left for almost continuous communication with Lasse: in order to go to work in Stockholm on Monday morning, Astrid had to leave Copenhagen early on Sunday evening.

Twenty-four or twenty-five hours of communication, first every second, and then every third or fifth month for three years - seemingly a little, but in the ocean of melancholy, these single trips were precious drops. In those years, Astrid could not be a real mother for Lasse, but thanks to trips to Copenhagen, the boy formed the image of a "mother" - a process that Aunt Stevens and Karl tried to stimulate. Out of their kindness, they described in detail Lasse's state of health, his speech and motor development, daily active games.

To be continued.