Author of the month: Tove Jansson

This month, we would like to introduce to you about Tove Jansson. She was a Swedish-speaking Finnish author, novelist, painter, illustrator, and comic strip author who is mostly remembered as the creator of the Moomins book series which have translated into over fifty languages.

Tove's father was Finnish-Swedish Viktor Jansson and her mother was Swedish Signe Hammarsten-Jansson. Viktor made his career as a sculptor and her mother Signe worked as an illustrator and artist. Tove had two little brothers, Per Olov Jansson and Lars Jansson and like other members in the family both of them became artists.

Jansson is principally known as the author of the Moomin books. Jansson created the Moomins, a family of trolls who are white, round and smooth in appearance, with large snouts that make them vaguely resemble hippopotamuses. The Moomins, generally speaking, relate strongly to Jansson's own family – they were bohemian and lived close to nature. Jansson remained close to her mother until her mother's death in 1970 ; Moominpappa and Moominmamma are often seen as portraits of Jansson's parents.

In 1956 Jansson met her lifelong partner, Tuulikki Pietilä.  In Helsinki they lived separately, in neighbouring blocks, visiting each other privately through an attic passageway.  In the 1960s, they built a house on a tiny uninhabited island in the Gulf of Finland, 100 kilometres (62 mi) from Helsinki, where they would escape for the summer months.

Jansson died on 27 June 2001 at the age of 86 from cancer and is buried with her parents and younger brother Lars, at the Hietaniemi Cemetery in Helsinki.

Here are some pictures of her books, it's also available to read in our library: