THE RELEVANT QUEER: Tove Jansson, Author and Artist, Creator of the Beloved Moomin Children’s Books

“I love you as if bewitched, yet at the same time with profound calm, and I’m not afraid of anything life has in store for us.”

TRQ: Tove Jansson, Born August 9, 1914

Author and artist Tove Jansson, creator of the beloved Moomin children’s books, was born on August 9, 1914. The fantastical Moomin world Jansson created celebrates families who are chosen and hybrid, which comforts children and adults alike. Publishers have translated Jansson’s books into over 40 languages, making her work some of Finland’s most globally popular literature.

Tove Marika Jansson was born in Helsinki, in what is today Finland. Her family was of Swedish heritage and lived a bohemian lifestyle. Her father Victor was a sculptor, and her mother Signe was a graphic artist. One brother was a photographer, while another was a writer and comic-strip artist.

Jansson enjoyed an idyllic childhood. The family’s holidays on an island in the Gulf of Finland provided a happy inspiration for her later work.

“Had it not been for my very happy childhood, I might never have started writing …. I never wrote entirely for children at all—maybe it was just for myself, to find a way back to the lost world of adventures with happy endings, to the confidence, the constant curiosity, and the boundless possibilities, never questioned…. a way back to the endless summers in the archipelago of the Gulf of Finland,” she once said.

As a child in the 1920s, Jansson sold drawings to magazines. When Jansson was 14, she created her first book entitled Sara och Pelle och näckens bläckfiskar (Sara and Pelle and Neptune’s Children), though it was not published until 1933. In 1930, when she was 15, Jansson enrolled at the School of Applied Arts in Stockholm. After her studies in Stockholm, she attended the Graphic School at the Helsinki Art Academy from 1933 to 1937. In 1938, she studied at École d’Adrien Holy and the École des Beaux-Arts in Paris.

During these years of study, Jansson continued to write and illustrate articles for magazines and papers, as well as advertisements and postcards. Like her mother, she contributed illustrations for Garm, an anti-fascist satirical magazine. These illustrations included the Moomintroll cartoons, which Jansson would develop into her children’s book series.

The Moomin stories are surreal tales of how an unconventional family embraces a sense of fun while dealing with a sometimes threatening and mysterious natural world. They grew more sophisticated with each book, and by the time Trollvinter (Moominland Midwinter) (1957) was published, the series has transitioned from being children’s books into fantasy literature.

Underlying the growing sophistication was the message that consideration and understanding of personal differences are important. As the Moomin family grows and develops, a loving bond secures even those members who are unlike the others.

Though her identity had been desexualized, and her queerness nearly erased, Jansson had relationships with both men and women.

“I always fell in love with a person. Sometimes that person was a man, and sometimes it was a woman. But the important thing was that I fell in love with that person.”
— Tove Jansson

After Jansson fell in love with theatre director Vivica Bandler, she wrote in a letter to a friend, “Something has happened to me that I realise I have to tell you about. I’m so happy, so elated, and relieved. You know I feel like Atos’s wife, and I expect I always shall. But what has happened now is that I’ve fallen madly in love with a woman. And it seems to me so absolutely natural and genuine – there’s nothing problematic about it at all. I just feel proud and uncontrollably glad. These last weeks have been like one long dance of rich adventure, tenderness, intensity – an expedition into new domains of great simplicity and beauty.”

After the romance ended, Jansson remained friends with Vivica, who inspired the Vifslan (Bob) character in the Moomin universe. The character holds hands with and shares a secret language with Tofslan (Thingumy), just as Jansson and Vivica had in life.

In 1955, Jansson met life-partner Tuulikki “Tooti” Pietilä at a party, where they spent the night playing records and talking. Later, they moved into two buildings that shared an attic hallway that allowed them to visit endlessly. This is featured in Tove’s openly queer novel Rent Spel (Fair Play) (1989). By the time she met Pietilä, Jansson was starting to feel burnout from public pressure to publish more Moomin books. Despite this, Pietilä inspired her to create the calming, grounding character Too-Ticky for Moominland Midwinter.

The International Board of Books for Young People awarded Jansson the Hans Christian Andersen Award writing award in 1966, the same year she also illustrated a Finnish edition of Alice in Wonderland. Jansson also started working on more adult work, which included Bildhuggarens dotter (Sculptor’s Daughter) (1968), Sommarboken (The Summer Book) (1972) and “Den stora resan” (“The Great Journey”) (1978).

In 1993, Moomin World theme park opened in Nanntali, Finland. Designed by Dennis Livson, the park is inspired by the Moomin series.

“It is simply this: do not tire, never lose interest, never grow indifferent—lose your invaluable curiosity and you let yourself die. It’s as simple as that.”— Tove Jansson

On June 27, 2001, Jansson died from cancer at age 86. She is buried with her parents and younger brother in Helsinki. Pietilä died on February 23, 2009. In 2014, Helsinki renamed a park near Jansson’s childhood home as “Tove Janssonin puisto” (“Tove Jansson’s Park”). In 2019, the Moominvalley animated series was broadcast. In October 2020, Zaida Bergroth released Tove, a biopic.

About the Authors

Troy Wise is currently a PhD student at UAL Central St Martins and teaches fashion and graphic design at London College of Contemporary Arts. His background is in marketing and is founder and co-editor of Image Amplified. He lives in, and is continually fascinated by, the city of London.

Rick Guzman earned his most recent MA at UAL Central St Martins in Applied Imagination in the Creative Industries. He currently holds two MA’s and an MBA in the New Media, Journalism and International Business fields. Co-editor at Image Amplified since its start, he lives in London, is fascinated by history and is motivated by continuing to learn and explore.

Sources:

GLBTQ Archive

Making Queer History

MuumiMuseo

NY Times

The Guardian