Moomin
The first Moomin book, The Little Trolls and the Great Flood (1945), is the story of Moominmamma and Moomintroll's search for Moominpappa. After many hardships and adventures the family is at last reunited in an idyllic valley. In the eight books that followed, from Comet in Moominland 1946 to Moominvalley in November 1970, the Moomin valley remains the centre of the family's life. Adventures, catastrophes and partings are recurring themes, but ultimately the family is always reunited and the idyll remains.
Around this family in the valley, with Moominmamma as it´s natural centre, a great variety of characters slowly gather: Snork Maiden and Sniff, Snufkin and Little My, fillyjonks, hattifatteners and hemulens, all with their own personality and philosophy of life. In this Moomin-world Tove Jansson has created an autonomous universe of her own, a world both enchanting and inspiring for young and old.
Finn Family Moomintroll became Tove Janssons real breakthrough as an author of children's books. It was quickly translated into English and so began the international success of the Moomin books. They have now been translated into 40 languages: Arabic, Bulgarian, Catalan, Chinese, Croatian, Cymric, Czech, Danish, Dutch, English, Esperanto, Esthonian, Faroese, Finnish, French, Georgian, German, Greek, Hebrew, Hillmari, Hungarian, Icelandic, Italian, Japanese, Korean, Lapp, Latvian, Lithuanian, Norwegian, Persian, Polish, Portugese, Russian, Slovak, Slovene, Spanish, Thai, Ukranian, and Welsh.
The Moomin books have also been dramatized for different media: theatre, opera, film, radio and TV. The latest is a Japanese animated tv-series.
Tove Jansson has received much recognition for her work as an author: among others the the Nils Holgersson plaquette 1953, the Hans Christian Andersen medal 1966, the Mårbacka Prize 1977, the Prize of the Swedish Academy 1972, the Pro Finlandia medal 1976, The American-Scandinavian Foundations price 1996.
The Tove Jansson Prize
The Tove Jansson Prize was established in 2002 by Svenska folkskolans vänner, Moomin Characters and Schildts Publishers. It is awarded to a Finnish national who has distinguished him- or herself with merit in the domain of children’s and youth culture. To reflect Tove Jansson’s versatility as an artist, the prize may be given to someone active in several or one of the following fields: literature, painting, theatre, film and music. The prize is awarded once every three years.
Moominbooks:
- The Moomins and the Great Flood (transl. by David McDuff)
- (available in Puffin paperbacks):
- Comet in Moominland (transl. by Elizabeth Portch)
- Finn Family Moomintroll (trnsl. by Elizabeth Portch)
- The Exploits of Moominpappa (transl. by Thomas Warburton)
- Moominsummer Madness (transl. by Thomas Warburton)
- Moominland Midwinter (transl. by Thomas Warburton)
- Tales from Moominvalley (transl. by Thomas Warburton)
- Moominpappa at Sea (transl. by Kingsley Hart)
- Moominvalley in November (transl. by Kingsley Hart)
Picture-books:
- The Book about Moomin Mymble and Little My
- Who will comfort Toffle?
- The Dangerous Journey
- Skurken i muminhuset (The Villain in the Moominhouse)
In 1953 Tove Jansson was contacted by Associated Press and her Moomin comics were published in The Evening News. In 1960 her younger brother Lars Jansson continued the drawing of the internationally spread Moomin strips.
