About the Author

Jens Andersen is an award‑winning author whose works include a highly acclaimed biography of Hans Christian Andersen. He lives in Denmark and serves as literary critic for several Danish newspapers. Caroline Waight is an award‑winning freelance translator from Danish and German.

Reviews

“A touching biography of [Pippi Longstocking’s] creator Astrid Lingren sheds new light on the genesis of her most celebrated creation. . . she continues to inspire fresh generations to follow in her outsize footsteps.
—Lydia Slater, Harper’s Bazaar

“Lindgren is an absolute gift to a biographer. She was an industrious letter writer and diarist, and her life both reflected and embodied some of the most significant political and social shifts of the 20th century. . . [Andersen] is masterful at elucidating the accumulative private sorrows that shaded the inner life of this industrious woman, who wrote such enduringly exuberant stories.”
—Claire Allfree, Daily Telegraph
 

“Literary critic Jens Andersen recounts the celebrated author’s fascinating life and work . . .  a detailed and thoughtful volume.”—Meghan Cox Gurdon, Wall Street Journal

“[A] fine and thoughtful biography.”—Nicci Gerrard, Observer

“If one woman could embody the trajectory of the 20th century, I nominate Astrid Lindgren. She emerges from this absorbing biography as a feminist, writer, campaigner for children’s rights, visionary humanist, and a model of the intelligent life well-lived.”—Meg Rosoff, international best-selling author

“This is the definitive biography of the author of Pippi Longstocking. Astrid Lindgren emerges as a fully formed artistic, political, and social figure: a Scandinavian modernist who produced works of world literature.”—Seth Lerer, author of Children's Literature: A Reader's History, from Aesop to Harry Potter

“It is no small achievement to have brought to life an author already so alive in the minds of her readers, but Jens Andersen has done it. This is a wonderfully sympathetic and intimate portrait of a writer we all thought we knew.” — Morten Høi Jensen, author of A Difficult Death: The Life and Work of Jens Peter Jacobsen

“Andersen tells Lindgren’s story with befitting adroitness and charm. This biography will raise the care and interest with which scholars and admirers alike approach Pippi Longstocking for years to come.”—Heather Klemann, Yale University