Inside Tove Jansson’s

Private Universe
It is still summer, but the
Best known as the creator of the summer is no longer alive.
Moomins, Jansson was a cartoonist,
writer, anh creator of all sorts, whose It has come to a standstill;
fans clamored for more of her strange nothing withers, and fall is
and enthralling fictional worlds. not ready to begin. There are
By James Guida
no stars yet, just darkness.”
March 5, 2014

Tove Jansson’s portrait

In the nineteen-fifties and sixties, one of the most famous cartoonists
in the world was a lesbian artist who lived on a remote island off the “ Hi my name is Olavi. You write well
coast of Finland. Tove Jansson had the status of a beloved cultural Several pages of this is charming; forty years’ worth would
but last time you didn’t make a happy have been wearying. Yet, as the sole emissary of her fictional
icon—adored by children, celebrated by adults. Before her death, in ending. Why do you do this?” world, Jansson felt the need to be gracious. In 1948, after she
2001, at the age of eighty-six, Jansson produced paintings, novels,
had published the first couple of Moomin books, but before
children’s books, magazine covers, political cartoons, greeting cards, “We look forward to your valued reply anyone was demanding her approval of Moomin oven mitts,
librettos, and much more. But most of Jansson’s fans arrived by way soonest concerning Moomin motifs on she already had opinions about the duties of fame. Jansson’s
of the Moomins, a friendly species of her invention—rotund white toilet paper in pastel shades.” younger brother Lars (whom she called Lasse) had mailed some
creatures that look a little like upright hippos, and were the subject unsolicited poetry to Dorothy Parker, who never responded. In
of nine best-selling books and a daily comic strip that ran for twenty “Hi! We’re three girls in a mad rush with a letter to a friend, Jansson was offended on his behalf: “If I was
our essays about you could you help us the Great Woman, and received some (really quite good) love
years.
by saying in just a few words how you poems from a young man in Finland . . . in my own language
started writing and why and what life with an adoring dedication, I’d damn well send a few lines in
Jansson travelled frequently to conduct her duties as the ambassa- means to you and then a message to
dor of Moominvalley, mingling at parties where businessmen wore reply.” S he would not be that sort of Great Woman.
young people you know the kind of thing.
Moomin ties. In 1963, she wrote home, from the midst of prof Thanks in advance.”
essional obligations in Stockholm, “I was woken by another TV crew
wanting a comment on the cultural situation. . . . I’ve still got masses “Dear Miss Jansson, You must understand
to sort out with family and cousins and children’s culture reps and that the only way I can earn a living are
translators and art galleries. . . . I’m feeling pretty cocky but also trying panholders with Moomin figures which
to maintain my image: gentle, cultivated, enraptured child of nature.” I design myself and make in the kitchen
without any paid help at present. How
would 6% be for a start”
The work of being a public figure was neatly summed up, for her, in
the never-ending burdens of correspondence. Her short story “Mes-
sages,” published near the end of her life, is composed of snippets of
letters she received: Illustration by Tove Jansson in “farligo midsommer”

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