Astrid Lindgren was born in 1907, and grew up at a farm called Näs in the south of Sweden. She began her writing career in 1944 after she won a children's book competition, with Pippi Longstocking published a year later. She published more than one hundred books in her lifetime and is still the most popular children's author in Sweden. Her books have been translated into more than sixty languages, and she received numerous honours and awards. Astrid Lindgren died in 2002. Ingrid Nyman (1916-1959) was a Danish illustrator, noted for her work on the Pippi Longstocking books of which she was the original illustrator.