The Swedish Institute for Children’s Books 5 February 2020

First Study of Astrid Lindgren’s Original Manuscripts

Astrid Lindgren holds a unique position within world literature, yet her enigmatic creative and editorial process has for many years been hidden in her original drafts and manuscripts written in shorthand. Altogether, 670 shorthand notepads are in the possession of the Astrid Lindgren Archive at the National Library and the Swedish Institute for Children’s Books in Stockholm. These manuscripts have been considered “impossible” to access, and have to date never been subject to research.

However, with funding granted by Riksbankens Jubileumsfond (RJ), the Astrid Lindgren Code research project aims to utilise the joint competences of literary scholars, computer scientists, and professional stenographers to decode Lindgren’s shorthand through digital methods such as handwritten text recognition (HTR) and crowdsourcing.

The project will address Lindgren’s creative process more generally, but will initially focus on The World’s Best Karlson (1968) and The Brothers Lionheart (1973). Project participants project include Uppsala researchers Malin Nauwerck (PhD in comparative literature) and Anders Hast (Professor in computerised image processing), as well as digital scholarship librarian Karolina Andersdotter, and stenography teacher and former parliamentary stenographer Britt Almström.

“These manuscrips are so original and have such great potential that it’s hard to believe that they up to this point have been almost untouched. The opportunity to crack Lindgren’s stenographic code, her own ‘pig latin’, or should we say ‘robber’s language’ in this case, is a privilege to a researcher,” says Malin Nauwerck.

The Astrid Lindgren Code is the first study of Astrid Lindgren’s original manuscripts. The project will produce new knowledge of Lindgren and contribute to the methodological development of the analysis of handwritten documents. Currently planned for three years (2020–2022), the project is based at the Swedish Institute for Children’s Books.

“This is the largest research project based at the Swedish Institute for Children’s Books since the institute became an approved administrating organisation. We are thrilled to be able to follow the work up close. It’s also exciting that the project has ties to the institute’s own collections. Astrid Lindgren donated some of her shorthand notepads to the institute, so it feels like a perfect match to have the project based here,” says Åsa Warnqvist, Research Manager at the Swedish Institute for Children’s Books.

Read more about the Astrid Lindgren Code project at: https://www.barnboksinstitutet.se/en/forskning/astrid‐lindgren‐koden/

The Swedish Institute for Children’s Books serves as a hub for research and discussion on children’s and youth literature. Founded in 1965, the institute strives to strengthen the status of children’s books and to increase the knowledge of children’s and youth literature. It aims to stimulate a broad and open discussion about literature, and increase the status and competence of all who work with children’s literature and culture.