Her father was a sculptor. Her mother designed Finland’s stamps and banknotes. Her partner was a world-class designer. At fifteen, she published her first illustrations. At nineteen, a picture book. Her most famous creation -- the Moomintroll -- first appeared in an anti-fascist magazine. Her name was Tove Jansson. To her, I owe a lifetime love of literature.
Childhood was a gruesome time. I shed baby teeth, with only bloody gaps left behind. Knees bruised during games on pavement, bones ached with growth, a language barrier blocked conversations. The young brain needs a break from constant learning and adjusting, and where better to mentally vacation than Moominland, the fictional universe Tove Jansson’s Moomin family calls home?
The Moomins -- white, bipedal, hippo-like -- offered their creator solace too. Jansson’s life had hit a turbulent point: World War II ravaged Europe, and she struggled with a massive, personal art project after a disappointing stint studying painting at the École des Beaux-Arts. From this chaos the Moomins’ world emerged . Jansson wrote to a friend: “when I was feeling depressed and scared of the bombing and wanted to get away from my gloomy thoughts to something else entirely. . . . I crept into an unbelievable world where everything was natural and benign—and possible.”
Jansson was a novelist, and an author of short stories, but the Moomins remain her best known, and arguably best-loved, work. How could they not be? Consider the handsome fellow on the left, the titular character “Moomintroll,” who, according to MoominWiki is "very kind and well-meaning, however, he is rather emotional and tends to be sad or worried a lot.” Such lovable personalities garnered the Moomins fame all over the globe, with theme parks in Japan and Finland, an interactive playroom in the U.S., stores in China and Hong Kong, cafes in Thailand and South Korea, theatrical and anime adaptations, and many, many copies of her books sold.
For all of her fame, it took twenty-two years and a well-timed Instagram post for me to learn Jansson was queer. She was sandwiched between Arnold Lobel (of Frog and Toad fame) and Tomie dePaola (Strega Nona) on a list of queer children’s authors. At a time when book bans streak schools and libraries with red tape, with gorgeous books about LGBTQIA+ characters discarded, it seems particularly important that the identities of queer children's authors are acknowledged and celebrated.
Jansson had male and female partners in her life, but in 1956 she met the woman she’d spend the rest of her life with: Tuulikki Pietilä. Pietilä was, according to Wikipedia, “one of Finland's most influential graphic artists.” The women built a house on a remote island, Klovharu, in the Pellinki archipelago. There, they spent more than thirty peaceful summers. A documentary , “Haru, Island of the Solitary,” is spliced together from twenty hours of film footage recorded by Pietilä of their time together. The stills speak for themselves: a celebration of tranquility, nature,and love. Certainly, only a person this beautiful could have created so enduring a work of art, loved by both children, and children-all-grown-up.
To purchase Tove Jansson's (adult) novel from us: https://eagleeyebooks.com/book/9781590172681
And to (re)connect with the Moomins, we offer:
Comet in Moominland (Moomins #1): https://eagleeyebooks.com/book/9780312608880
Finn Family Moomintroll (Moomins #2): https://eagleeyebooks.com/book/9780312608897
Moomin and the Spring Surprise: https://eagleeyebooks.com/book/9781915801050
The Moomin ABC: https://eagleeyebooks.com/book/9781915801067
The Moomin 123: https://eagleeyebooks.com/book/9781915801074
“Einstein’s Dreams” by Alan Lightman
“Middlesex” by Jeffrey Eugenides
“Blood and Guts in High School” by Kathy Acker
“All About Love: New Visions” by bell hooks
“Mountains Beyond Mountains” by Tracy Kidder
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