Tove Jansson was studying in Stockholm and living with her Swedish relatives, her uncle tried to stop her pilfering food by telling her that a "Moomintroll" lived in the kitchen closet and breathed cold air down people's necks. In 1952, after "Comet in Moominland" and "Finn Family Moomintroll" had been translated into English, a British publisher asked if Tove Jansson would be interested in drawing comic strips about the Moomins. Jansson had already drawn a long Moomin comic adventure, "Mumintrollet och jordens undergång" ("Moomintrolls and the End of the World"), based loosely on "Comet in Moominland", for the Swedish-language newspaper "Ny Tid",
Tove Jansson Flood". The next two books, "Comet in Moominland" and "Finn Family Moomintroll", published in 1946 and 1948 respectively, were highly successful in sales, adding to sales of the first book. For her work as a children's writer she received the Hans Christian Andersen Medal in 1966. Starting with the semi-autobiographical "Bildhuggarens dotter" ("Sculptor's Daughter") in 1968, Jansson wrote six novels, including the admired "Sommarboken" ("The Summer Book"), and five books of short stories for adults. Tove Jansson was born in Helsinki, Grand Duchy of Finland, Russian Empire. Her family, part of the Swedish-speaking minority of Finland, was an artistic one: