LATEST DISCOUNTS & SALES: PROMOTIONS

Close Notification

Your cart does not contain any items

Tove Jansson

Life, Art, Words: The Authorised Biography

Boel Westin

$39.99

Paperback

Not in-store but you can order this
How long will it take?

QTY:

English
Sort Of Books
25 July 2018
The Finnish-Swedish writer and artist Tove Jansson achieved worldwide fame as the creator of the Moomin stories, written between 1945 and 1970 and still in print in more than twenty languages. However, the Moomins were only a part of her prodigious output. Already admired in Nordic art circles as a painter, cartoonist and illustrator, she would go on to write a series of classic novels and short stories. She remains Scandinavia's best loved author.

Tove Jansson's work reflected the tenets of her life: her love of family (and special bond with her mother), of nature, and her insistence on freedom to pursue her art. Love and work was the motto she chose for herself and her approach to both was joyful and uncompromising. If her relationships with men foundered on her ambivalence towards marriage, those with women came as a revelation, especially the love and companionship she found with her long-time partner, the artist Tuulikki Pietil, with whom she lived on the solitary island of Klovharu.

In this meticulously researched, authorised biography, Boel Westin draws together the many threads of Jansson's life: from the studies interrupted to help her family; the dark shades of war and her emergence as an artist with a studio of her own; to the years of Moomin-mania, and later novel writing. Based on numerous conversations with Tove, and unprecedented access to her journals, letters and personal archives, Tove Jansson: Life, Art, Words offers a rare and privileged insight into the world of a writer whom Philip Pullman described, simply, as 'a genius'.

By:  
Imprint:   Sort Of Books
Country of Publication:   United Kingdom
Edition:   Main
Dimensions:   Height: 196mm,  Width: 128mm,  Spine: 40mm
Weight:   478g
ISBN:   9781908745569
ISBN 10:   1908745568
Pages:   576
Publication Date:  
Audience:   General/trade ,  ELT Advanced
Format:   Paperback
Publisher's Status:   Active

Boel Westin is Professor of Literature at the University of Stockholm. She has published works on Lewis Carroll, August Strindberg, and is the editor, with Helen Svensson, of the forthcoming collection, Letters from Tove (Sort of Books, Oct 2018)

Reviews for Tove Jansson: Life, Art, Words: The Authorised Biography

[Jansson was] a unique and authentic voice that speaks to the reader across time and culture, heart to heart -- Boyd Tonkin


See Also