Swedish literature is befriended by a boy. Lindgren wrote twelve books about Emil of Maple Hills, a boy living in the Småland countryside in the early 1900s, who continuously gets intro trouble because of his pranks, yet in later life becomes a responsible and resourceful man, and the Chairman of the Municipality Council. One of few fantasy writers in Swedish literature apart from Lindgren was the Finnish writer Tove Jansson (1914–2001), who wrote, in the Swedish language, about the Moomins. The Moomins are trolls who live in an economically and politically independent state, without any materialistic concerns. The Moomins have appealed to
Tove Jansson her father, Viktor Jansson, was a sculptor, and her mother, Signe Hammarsten-Jansson, was a Swedish-born graphic designer and illustrator. Tove's siblings also became artists: Per Olov Jansson became a photographer and Lars Jansson an author and cartoonist. Whilst their home was in Helsinki, the family spent many of their summers in a rented cottage on an island near Borgå, 50 km east of Helsinki. Jansson studied at University College of Arts, Crafts and Design, in Stockholm in 1930–33, the Graphic School of the Finnish Academy of Fine Arts in 1933–1937, and finally at L'École d'Adrien Holy and L'École des Beaux-Arts