Pippi Longstocking Fraud in the US!
January 7, 2010 – 6:28 am
Maybe celebrating Christmas at home in Sweden with my three-year-old nephew and brand new nice has made me extra sensitive to violations against my childhood literary heroes. My English husband certainly thinks so after I treated him to a long tirade this morning about slimy fraudulent business men doing anything for a buck.
The source of my morning anger is Svenska Dagbladet’s article about Astrid Lindgren’s relatives spending hundreds of thousands of kronor on protecting character names from her books on the American market, only to find out that the copyright firm they used turned out to be fraudulent. Saltkråkan AB–the company responsible for Astrid’s estate, lead by her granddaughter Malin Billing–is known for being generous when it comes to using book titles and character names from Lindgren’s books, but they protest when hotels named Villa Vilerkulla open up claiming to be sanctioned by the author or children wigs made out of flammable materials are sold as “official Pippi products.”
Astrid Lindgren is so much more than a role model for me; my admiration is more on the order of worship. She didn’t start writing until she was in her forties and still managed to become an international publishing phenomenon. When she became pregnant as an unwed young woman in 1926, she decided against marriage even though the father of the baby proposed. Instead she left the boy in foster care and worked her butt off to get a career that would support both her and the child. I’m always a sucker for women who do their own thing despite society’s rules and expectations. Throughout her life she was an advocate for children and animal rights, as well as gender and ethnic equality.
The author has a minor planet called after her (3204 Lindgren, discovered in 1978) and the Swedish microsatellite Astrid 1 has instruments named after characters in her books: PIPPI (Prelude in Planetary Particle Imaging), EMIL (Electron Measurements - In-situ and Lightweight), and MIO (Miniature Imaging Optics). After it launched on 24 January 1995, the author said that maybe people should call her Asteroid Lindgren from then on.
Like several generations of Swedish children, I grew up reading her children and young adult books. Although Pippi and Emil were a big favorites when I was a child—mostly from the TV shows–my favorite books of hers, probably some of my all time favorite novels, are the young adult stories: Bröderna Lejonhjärta (Brothers Lionheart), Mio min Mio (Mio my Mio) and Ronja Rövardotter (Ronia the Robber’s Daughter). All of her characters are strong-willed and independent boys and girls who struggle with temptation, but in the end always do the right thing—all while having the adventure of their life.
Although I didn’t consciously thing about it then, I’m sure that strong female characters like Pippi and Ronja had a great influence on my perception of what girls’ role and place in society is. Just like Astrid herself, they didn’t take any crap and kicked butt just as well as the boys did.
I hope Lindgren’s granddaughter takes after her grandmother and give those fake copyright company owners a great ass-whopping.
