Tove Marika Jansson
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Reading time
2,426
Words
Published
14
Film credits
107
Books
14
Awards
Tove Jansson created the Moomin characters, first appearing in the 1945 book The Moomins and the Great Flood. She won the 1966 Hans Christian Andersen Medal. She also worked as an artist and cinematographer, and rejected Walt Disney’s offers to keep the Moomins independent. She died in Helsinki in 2001 at age 86.
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Tove Jansson by the numbers — life, work, and family.
Tove Jansson — early life, career, personal life, and legacy.
Tove Marika Jansson, born on August 9, 1914, in Helsinki, grew up in a Swedish-speaking home. Her father Viktor Jansson was a sculptor, and her mother Signe Hammarsten Jansson was a graphic designer and illustrator. She began drawing early and studied at the Läroverket för gossar och flickor before attending the Academy of Fine Arts of Helsinki and Konstfack in Stockholm.
The Moomin characters debuted in Jansson’s 1945 book The Moomins and the Great Flood and later became a comic strip in the 1950s. She wrote and illustrated numerous Moomin books, including Moominland Midwinter 1957 and Moominvalley in November 1970. She contributed to the 1969 anime series Mûmin and the 2019 series Moominvalley. In 1966, she received the Hans Christian Andersen Award for children’s literature.
Jansson split her time between Helsinki and the island of Klovharu in the Gulf of Finland. She had a long-term relationship with artist Tuulikki Pietilä, who inspired the Moomin character Too-ticky. They shared a home and collaborated on projects. She stayed close to her siblings Lars and Per Olov, both involved in the Moomin business.
The Moomin characters inspired theme parks, museums, and merchandise worldwide. Jansson refused to sell the rights to Disney, instead establishing Moomin World and the Tampere Art Museum. In 2016, she was inducted into the Will Eisner Comic Hall of Fame. She is remembered as a major children’s author of the 20th century.
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Every award, honor, and recognition received by Tove Jansson — Grammys, hall-of-fame inductions, civic honors, lifetime achievements.
Tove Jansson's bibliography — every authored, edited, and co-written book, ranked by edition count.
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A wall of memorable lines from Tove Jansson — lyrics, interviews, and off-the-cuff remarks captured over a lifetime.
A Person Can Find Anything If He Takes the Time, That Is, If He Can Afford to Look. and While He’s Looking, He’s Free, and He Finds Things He Never Expected.
One Summer Morning at Sunrise a Long Time Ago, I Met a Little Girl with a Book Under Her Arm. I Asked Her Why She Was Out so Early and She Answered That There Were Too Many Books and Far Too Little Time. and There, She Was Absolutely Right.
Do Not Tire, Never Lose Interest, Never Grow Indifferent Lose Your Invaluable Curiosity and You Let Yourself Die. It’s as Simple as That.
You Must Go on a Long Journey Before You Can Really Find Out How Wonderful Home Is.
I Only Want to Live in Peace, Plant Potatoes and Dream!
I Love Borders. August Is the Border Between Summer and Autumn; It Is the Most Beautiful Month I Know. Twilight Is the Border Between Day and Night, and the Shore Is the Border Between Sea and Land. the Border Is Longing: When Both Have Fallen in Love but Still Haven’t Said Anything. the Border Is to Be on the Way. It Is the Way That Is the Most Important Thing.
There Are Such a Lot of Things That Have No Place in Summer and Autumn and Spring. Everything That’s a Little Shy and a Little Rum. Some Kinds of Night Animals and People That Don’t Fit in with Others and That Nobody Really Believes In. They Keep Out of the Way All the Year. and Then When Everything’s Quiet and White and the Nights Are Long and Most People Are Asleep Then They Appear.
A Theatre Is the Most Important Sort of House in the World, Because That’s Where People Are Shown What They Could Be If They Wanted, and What They’d Like to Be If They Dared to and What They Really Are.
Lie on the Bridge and Watch the Water Flowing Past. or Run, or Wade Through the Swamp in Your Red Boots. or Roll Yourself up and Listen to the Rain Falling on the Roof. It’s Very Easy to Enjoy Yourself.
Making a Journey by Night Is More Wonderful Than Anything in the World.
The Quiet Transition from Autumn to Winter Is Not a Bad Time at All. It’s a Time for Protecting and Securing Things and for Making Sure You’ve Got in as Many Supplies as You Can. It’s Nice to Gather Together Everything You Possess as Close to You as Possible, to Store up Your Warmth and Your Thoughts and Burrow Yourself into a Deep Hole Inside, a Core of Safety Where You Can Defend What Is Important and Precious and Your Very Own. Then the Cold and the Storms and the Darkness Can Do Their Worst. They Can Grope Their Way up the Walls Looking for a Way In, but They Won’t Find One, Everything Is Shut, and You Sit Inside, Laughing in Your Warmth and Your Solitude, for You Have Had Foresight.
It’s Always Like This in Adventures: to Save and Be Saved. I Wish Somebody Would Write a Story Sometime About the People Who Warm up the Heroes Afterward.
The Thing About God Is That He Usually Does Help, but Not Until You’ve Made an Effort on Your Own.
Someone Who Eats Pancakes and Jam Can’t Be so Awfully Dangerous. You Can Talk to Him.
There’s No Need to Imagine That You’re a Wondrous Beauty, Because That’s What You Are.
I Just Look at Things, and When I Go Away I Carry Them in My Head. Then My Hands Are Always Free, Because I Don’t Have to Carry a Suitcase.
Why Do You Smile All the Time? Because I Am Looking at You.
There Are Those Who Stay and Others Who Leave, There Has Always Been. Everyone Is Allowed to Choose for Themselves, but Must Be Chosen in a Timely Manner and Must Never Give Up.
T’s Funny About Paths and Rivers. You See Them Go By, and Suddenly You Feel Upset and Want to Be Somewhere Else Wherever the Path or the River Is Going, Perhaps.
One Makes a Trip by Day, but by Night One Sets Out on a Journey.
Smell Is Important. It Reminds a Person of All the Things He’s Been Through; It Is a Sheath of Memories and Security.
Little-known facts about Tove Jansson — origins, oddities, and behind-the-scenes details from a public life.
Creator of the Moomin cartoon and novel characters.
Rejected an offer from the Walt Disney Company to sell the rights to The Moomins; instead she started her own theme park, Moomin World, and museum, the Tampere Art Museum.
Recipient of the 1966 Hans Christian Andersen Medal.
She was inducted into the Will Eisner Comics Hall of Fame in 2016.
Quick answers to the questions readers ask most about Tove Jansson.
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