Picture of author.

Elsa Beskow (1874–1953)

Author of Children of the Forest

83+ Works 4,004 Members 65 Reviews 9 Favorited

About the Author

Series

Works by Elsa Beskow

Children of the Forest (1910) 517 copies
Pelle's New Suit (1912) 486 copies
Peter in Blueberry Land (1901) 407 copies
Around the Year (1927) 320 copies
The Sun Egg (1932) 261 copies
Woody, Hazel and Little Pip (1939) 236 copies
Ollie's Ski Trip (1907) 221 copies
The Flowers' Festival (1914) 165 copies
Christopher's Harvest Time (1923) 114 copies
Peter's Old House (1949) 107 copies
Peter and Lotta's Christmas (1947) 102 copies
The Land of Long Ago (1923) 100 copies
The Children of Hat Cottage (1930) 79 copies
Emily and Daisy (1941) 77 copies
Peter and Lotta's Adventure (1929) 69 copies
The Curious Fish (1933) 60 copies
Princess Sylvie (1934) 58 copies
Uncle Blue's New Boat (1942) 55 copies
Aunt Brown's Birthday (1925) 47 copies
ABC-resan (1945) 30 copies
Elsa Beskows sagoskatt (2009) 23 copies
Muntergök (1919) 7 copies
Beskowin satuvakka (1983) 6 copies
Children from Solbacka (1898) 6 copies
Barnas store rim- og reglebok (2010) — Author — 5 copies
Sagobok (1971) 4 copies
Vill du läsa? III (1981) 3 copies
Mors Lilla Olle (1969) 2 copies
Mitt första år (1985) 2 copies
Hatt-Stugan 1 copy
Mina fr̲sta r̄ (2016) 1 copy
Elsa Beskow 1 copy
El huevo del sol (2021) 1 copy
Sm©Ænissene (2016) 1 copy
Vill du måla? 123 (1997) 1 copy
Dagbok (1987) 1 copy
Tätien satuaarteita (2007) 1 copy
La maison chapeau (1992) 1 copy
Deti lesnogo gnoma (2012) 1 copy

Associated Works

Thumbelina (1835) — Illustrator, some editions — 773 copies
Writing Books for Boys and Girls (1952) — Contributor, some editions — 5 copies
Blommornas bok (1976) — Illustrator — 4 copies

Tagged

Common Knowledge

Other names
Maartman, Elsa (birth name)
Birthdate
1874-02-11
Date of death
1953-06-30
Gender
female
Nationality
Sweden
Birthplace
Stockholm, Sweden
Place of death
Djursholm, Sweden
Places of residence
Östermalm, Sweden
Djursholm, Sweden
Education
Tekniska skolan, Stockholm, Sweden
Konstfackskolan
Occupations
art teacher
artist
children's book author
children's book illustrator
Relationships
Beskow, Bo (son)
Beskow, Gunnar (son)
Awards and honors
Nils Holgersson plaque, 1952
Short biography
Elsa Beskow, née Maartman, studied art education at Konstfack in Stockholm, then called Tekniska skolan. In 1897, she married Natanael Beskow, whom she had met while working as a teacher at the school where he served as headmaster. They had six sons, including Bo Beskow, who grew up to become an artist. During her career, Elsa Beskow wrote or illustrated about 40 books and became one of the best-known of all Swedish children's book authors. Many of her books became classics and are continually reprinted. Her books were often decorated in Art Nouveau style.

Members

Reviews

Read this as a child
 
Flagged
Litrvixen | 2 other reviews | Jun 23, 2022 |
old, classic Swedish stories (early 1900's)
 
Flagged
melodyreads | 1 other review | Jul 13, 2021 |
An absolutely lovely book that tells the story of an elf that finds a "sun egg" (spoiler alert: it's a orange) with some woodland friends, and goes on an adventure which I have to guess is Florida, given the orange trees.

I'm so in love with Elsa Beskow's illustrative work, and already have another one of her books on the way, Rosalind and The Little Deer. I really appreciate the detail of nature she puts into her art. Makes me want to touch all the tree branches.

One of the elves is a little jerk, so there's that.

This book was originally published in 1932 in Swedish. (The cover is the exact same)
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Flagged
toast_and_tea | 6 other reviews | Jun 6, 2021 |
Children of the Forest, translated by Michael Jay Smith.

The children of the forest work and play their way through the four seasons of the year in this translation of a classic Swedish picture-book. Whether they are see-sawing with fairies or catching a ride with bats, helping to gather mushrooms and berries or listening to their father's stories, the rhythms of the natural world drive all that they do. When a year passes and spring comes again, they find that there is a baby sibling who has enlarged their family circle...

The fourth English translation I have read of Beskow's Tomtebobarnen, originally published in Sweden in 1910, Children of the Forest (not to be confused with the Alison Sage translation of the same name) is the second, after Sonja Bergvall's 1966 The Little Elves of Elf Nook, to be presented in verse. I speculated in my review of the Bergvall that this might reflect the original form of the book, and that idea seems borne out here by the statement on the cover (and title page): "Verse and Pictures by Elsa Beskow." Whatever the case may be, I found the text here to be superior to the Bergvall version, which I thought quite awkward and stilted. The text here still leaves something to be desired, but it is an improvement. I did wonder a bit at Smith's choice, in the scene involving the children playing in the snow, to describe them as "Peter, Tim and Tommy," when one of them is clearly a girl, but leaving that aside, I didn't find much to remark upon in the text. The artwork is beautiful, as always, but I thought the reproductions here were a little drab, compared to the other three versions I have perused.

Having now read all four of the English versions of this original Swedish woodland fairy-tale that are known to me, I can say that overall I preferred the prose versions, done by Zita Beskow and Alison Sage, to the poetic ones done by Sonja Bergvall and William Jay Smith. Of the two prose versions, it is the Sage that is widely available, so I would recommend that version, unless one is intent on comparing translations, as I was.
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1 vote
Flagged
AbigailAdams26 | 8 other reviews | Apr 20, 2019 |

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Associated Authors

André Bjerke Translator, Author
Bruno Frost Illustrator
Joan Tate Translator
Eila Kivikk'aho Translator
Sergi Noguera Translator
Zita Beskow Translator
Sonja Bergvall Translator
Alison Sage Translator
Polly Lawson Translator
Hans Braarvig Translator
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Kristina Turner Translator

Statistics

Works
83
Also by
5
Members
4,004
Popularity
#6,305
Rating
4.1
Reviews
65
ISBNs
376
Languages
14
Favorited
9

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