Identity area
Reference code
Title
Date(s)
- 1933--2007 (Creation)
Level of description
Extent and medium
x volumes
Context area
Name of creator
Biographical history
Archival history
The transfer of Astrid Lindgren's archive to the Manuscripts collection at the National Library of Sweden in 1980 was intitiated by Vivi Edström, professor in childrens´literature at Stockholm University. When the first boxes where being sent away to the library Astrid Lindgren got the advise by the head of the Manuscripts department, Harry Järv, to not throw anything away. This advise she followed closely. The advise together with the discarding of the material kept at the publishing house when she retired in 1970 is probably the reason why most of the material in the archive is from the 1970s onwards.
Before the whole of the archive ended up at NLS a smaller portion had been structured at the Swedish National Archives by Brittmarie Lundh (see the inventory from 1974). To integrate the part structured at the national archives with the rest of the archive, the material was restructured to fit the main part.
Traces of the earlier structure can be seen in the newspaper clippings (L230:17). After 1980 material has continually been transferred to the national library, first by the creator herself and after her death her heirs through Astrid Lindgren AB. Also material from creators have been added to the archive.
In total the archive is made up of 71 acquisitions from 1981-2010.
In 2005, the Astrid Lindgren archive was the first swedish collection to be made part of the Unesco Memory of the World Register. The structuring and cataloguing of the archive has mostly been carried out 1999-2010 which has mainly been financed by the Knut och Alice Wallenberg stiftelse and Astrid Lindgren AB.
Immediate source of acquisition or transfer
Content and structure area
Scope and content
Dates
The archive spans from about 1933-2007. The mainpart is from after 1970, when Astrid Lindgren's employment at the Rabén & Sjögren publishing house ended. In conjuction with this some of the archival documents seem to have been discarded. The parts of the archive which was kept in her home, mainly the manuscripts, stenographic notes and newspaper clippings, seem relatively complete. Especially the manuscripts collection (L230:4) contains works also before the 1930s, that is to say before Astrid Lindgren's official debute 1944. Through Astrid Lindgren AB some of the material after her passing in january of 2002 has been added to the archive, especially condolence letters and press clippings. The clippings cover the period 1944-2007.
Scope
The archive is probably one of the most extensive collections that an individual Swede has ever left behind them. The archive is about 140 shelf meters and is comprised of up to thousands of archive boxes of different sizes. The total collection of letters to Astrid Lindgren - letters from adults and children, private correspondence, business correspondence, greeting cards and more- is close to 75 000. About 27 000 letters from 11 8000 correspondents have been catalogued in a correspondent registry. To that is uncatalogued collections of greeting cards, fan mail, childrens' letters and more. (See L230:1). The letters from Astrid Lindgren is comparatively few and are mainly copies. Only rarely did Astrid Lindgren copy her outgoing letters. A couple of original letters are included in the letters from Astrid Lindgren, all of them donated to the library after her death. The registry of letters from Astrid Lindgren is comprised of 900 copies to arounb 530 people. There are also around 2 600 letters written by her secretary during 1994-2002 (See L230:2)
The archive also contains around 600 manuscripts, 660 stenographic notebooks and 850 photographs. Separate lists of these can be found in the uploaded finding aid. Biographic documents, newspaper clippings (approximated at 100 000), posters, theater programs, dedicated books and other printed material as well as other material is presented more briefly. You can also find 23 thematically structured dossiers which are presented in the uploaded finding aid.
Finally the archive also contains the part of Astrid Lindgrens library which was previously kept in here summer recidence in Furusund. The Furusund library, as well as the library in here apartment in Stockholm have been catalogued in Libris.
Appraisal, destruction and scheduling
Accruals
System of arrangement
Conditions of access and use area
Conditions governing access
Contact Astrid Lindgren AB (www.astridlindgrenab.se; info@astridlindgren.se). For childrens' letters no permission is required. All material in the collection (except the "Samfundet De nio"-dossier) will be made freely accessible October 10th 2032. The material in the "Samfundet De nio"-dossier is completetely restricted from access until October 10th 2057
Conditions governing reproduction
Language of material
- English
- Swedish
- German
Script of material
Language and script notes
Physical characteristics and technical requirements
Finding aids
Uploaded finding aid
Allied materials area
Existence and location of originals
Existence and location of copies
Related units of description
Notes area
Note
Astrid Lindgren was born in Vimmerby on the 14th of November 1907 and died in Stockholm January 28th 2002. She was buried in Vimmerby. Besides her authorship she worked as a publisher between 1946-1970 at Rabén & Sjögren publishing house. Already from the start of her career as an author (her first childrens stories were published in 1933) she kept her manuscripts and other material for the future. From 1945 she subscribed to a press clipping service from swedish newspapers and magazines. She livd in the same apartement for more than 60 years, from October 1941 to her death, something which must have been a mayor reason for the archive being as extensive as it is, both datewise and in regard to its size. The parts of the archive which were kept in her home were probably never discarded.
In 1946, the same year as the first translations of her works were published, Astrid Lndgren was employed at Raben & Sjögren publising house, where she soon found herself responsible for the publication of childrens' books.
The half time employment as publisher meant that she aquired the skills to be able to handle the translationrights to her own works (in time the number of translation languages would grow to over ninty). This is the reason the archive also contains a large collection of royalty statements. (L230:8:6:1)
The delineation between the publishing correspondence and her private business correspondence is unclear and both the business letters and more private letters are part of the archive together with other material.
Note
https://www.kb.se/hitta-och-bestall/digitala-kollektioner/ingrid-vang-nymans-skisser.html
Alternative identifier(s)
Access points
Subject access points
Place access points
Name access points
- Lindgren, Astrid (Subject)
Description control area
Description identifier
Institution identifier
Rules and/or conventions used
Status
Level of detail
Dates of creation revision deletion
Revised by AH 2018-02-15
Revised and translated by RL 2019-11-08