Maria Gripe

María Gripe born as María Walter (Vaxholm, July 25, 1923 – Rönninge, April 5, 2007) was a Swedish writer of children's and youth literature., awarded the Hans Christian Andersen Prize and translated into dozens of languages.

Biography

With a writer father, he was born in Vaxholm, a town near Stockholm in 1923. He studied philosophy and also the history of regions and religions at Stockholm University. After graduating, he dedicated himself to teaching. In 1946 she married the painter and illustrator Harald Gripe, who encouraged her to write and who would later illustrate many of her texts.

Although she began writing traditional books, arising, as she herself says, from the stories she told her daughter Camila—who, in turn, also became a children's author—she soon began to create others in which She brought to light the authoritarianism that is hidden in the family and at school, which makes her one of the representatives of the anti-authoritarian trend in children's literature.

He debuted in literature with I vår lilla stad (In our small town), a novel published in 1954, and gained international popularity in the following decade with his trilogy about Hugo and Josephine. Some of his works appear on the list of books recommended for reading in secondary education, such as, for example, The beetles fly at sunset (1983), which in Spanish alone has had more than 40 editions. and which has appeared on lists in both Spain and other Spanish-speaking countries (for example, Chile, 1st Medio). Several of his works, including this last one, have been adapted to film.

With an exquisite style, accurate and simple language, he addresses any realistic topic, no matter how dangerous it may seem, but that worries children: the unwanted or ignored child, alcoholism, prison, unemployment, Envy, maladjustment, death, loneliness are part of everyday life that we must learn to live with or overcome.^{[citation required]}

Gripe, who won the Hans Christian Andersen medal in 1974, lived most of his adult life in Nyköping, the city where the film adaptation of his book Agnes Cecilia also took place. After a long period of senile dementia, she died at the age of 83 in a nursing home in Rönninge, on the outskirts of Stockholm. Her husband Harald had died 15 years earlier.

Works

• I vår lilla stad (1954)
• När det snöade (1955)
• Kung Laban kommer (1956)
• Kvarteret Labyrinten (1956)
• Sebastian och skuggan (1957)
• Stackars Table Q (1957)
• Tappa inte masken (1959)
• A summer with Nina and Larsen (De små röda(1960)
• Josefina (Josefin(1961)
• Hugo and Josefina (Hugo och Josefin(1962)
• The daughter of the scarecrow (Pappa Pellerins dotter(1963)
• The children of the window (Glasblåsarns barn) (1964)
• The King and the Head of Turkish (I klockornas tid(1965)
• Hugo (Hugo(1966)
• The country beyond (Landet utanför(1967)
• Dad at night (Nattpappan(1968)
• The Crystal Tunnel (Glastunneln(1969)
• My aunt, secret agent. (Tanten(1970)
• Julia's house and dad's night (Julias hus och nattpappan(1971)
• Elvis Karlsson (Elvis Karlsson(1972)
• Elvis, Elvis (Elvis!(1973)
• The green coat (... ellen dellen...(1974)
• The real Elvis (Den «riktiga» Elvis(1976)
• Att vara Elvis (1977)
• Beetles fly at sunset (Tordyveln flyger i skymningen(1978)
• Bara Elvis (1979)
• Agnes Cecilia (Agnes Cecilia in sällsam history(1981)
• The shadow on the stone bench (Skuggan över stenbänken(1982)
• Those white shadows in the forest (... och de vita skuggorna i skogen(1984)
• Godispåsen (1985)
• Carolin, Berta and the shadows (Skuggornas barn(1986)
• Boken om Hugo och Josefin, samlingsvolym (1986)
• Skugg-gömman (1988)
• Hjärtat som ingen ville ha (1989)
• Tre trappor upp med hiss (1991)
• Eget rum (1992)
• Egna världar (1994)
• Annas blomma (1997)