Tove Jansson

Author profile

born

August 09, 1914 in Helsinki, Finland

died

June 27, 2001

genre

Children's Books, Science Fiction & Fantasy

About this author

edit data

Tove Jansson was born and died in Helsinki, Finland. As a Finnish citizen whose mother tongue was Swedish, she was part of the Swedish-speaking Finns minority. Thus, all her books were originally written in Swedish.

Although known first and foremost as an author, Tove Jansson considered her careers as author and painter to be of equal importance.

Tove Jansson wrote and illustrated her first Moomin book, The Moomins and the Great Flood (1945, during World War II. She said later that the war had depressed her, and she had wanted to write something naïve and innocent. Besides the Moomin novels and short stories, Tove Jansson also wrote and illustrated four original and highly popular picture books.

Jansson's Moomin books, originally written in S...more

combine editions
Books by Tove Jansson

Average rating: 4.25 · 15,952 ratings · 1,419 reviews · 117 distinct works

	Finn Family Moomintroll by Tove Jansson, Elizabeth Portch (Translator) 4.32 avg rating — 1,808 ratings — published 1948 — 50 editions	My rating:
	The Summer Book by Tove Jansson (Author), Esther Freud (Introduction) 4.14 avg rating — 1,497 ratings — published 1972 — 27 editions	My rating:
	Comet In Moominland 4.27 avg rating — 1,531 ratings — published 1946 — 40 editions	My rating:
	Moominsummer Madness 4.30 avg rating — 1,345 ratings — published 1954 — 34 editions	My rating:
	Moominland Midwinter 4.37 avg rating — 1,364 ratings — published 1957 — 39 editions	My rating:
	Moominpappa at Sea by Tove Jansson, Kingsley Hart (Translator) 4.26 avg rating — 1,048 ratings — published 1965 — 31 editions	My rating:
	Moomin Book One: The Complete Tove Jansson Comic Strip 4.39 avg rating — 832 ratings — published 1989 — 6 editions	My rating:
	Moominvalley in November by Tove Jansson, Kingsley Hart (Translator) 4.31 avg rating — 940 ratings — published 1970 — 26 editions	My rating:
	Tales from Moominvalley by Tove Jansson, Thomas Warburton (Translator) 4.23 avg rating — 888 ratings — published 1962 — 30 editions	My rating:
	The Moomins and the Great Flood 3.98 avg rating — 686 ratings — published 1945 — 11 editions	My rating:

More books by Tove Jansson…

Series by Tove Jansson

The Moomins (9 books)
by Tove Jansson, Thomas Warburton (Translator)

4.27 avg rating — 10,386 ratings

Moomins Comic Strip (23 books)
by Tove Jansson, Anna Rotkirch (Editor), Trygve Soderling (Editor), Peter Marten (Translator)

4.42 avg rating — 1,735 ratings

Moomin Picture Books (24 books)
by Tove Jansson

4.32 avg rating — 816 ratings

Quotes by Tove Jansson

“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.”
― Tove Jansson

98 people liked it

“I ONLY WANT TO LIVE IN PEACE AND PLANT POTATOES AND DREAM!”
― Tove Jansson, Moomin Book One: The Complete Tove Jansson Comic Strip

36 people liked it

“You can't ever be really free if you admire somebody too much.”
― Tove Jansson

26 people liked it

See all Tove Jansson's quotes »

Topics Mentioning This Author

topics	posts	views	last activity
Author -> Tove Jansson	1	34	Mar 24, 2007 03:24pm
The Alternative W...: What's Up With All the Rodents?	10	18	Apr 21, 2009 11:39pm
Children's Books: June 2010 - Finn Family Moomintroll (Finland)	130	64	Jun 25, 2010 07:26pm
Chicks On Lit: Anyone interested in a reading challenge for summer?	202	280	Sep 09, 2010 09:40pm
Bookish: Scandinavia, Nordic and Baltic Countries	58	94	Oct 09, 2010 04:14am
UK Book Club: Em's List	174	194	Dec 26, 2010 02:48pm
Reading with Style: RwS Completed Tasks - Winter	715	274	Mar 01, 2011 09:19am
Wild Things: YA G...: Books Not Originally Not In English!	36	228	Mar 16, 2011 12:58pm

More…