Gunhild Margareta Strömstedt ( Henriksson; 19 May 1931 − 28 March 2023) was a Swedish author, journalist and translator.The History of Nordic Women's Literature, Margareta Strömstedt
Retrieved 30 March 2023.Margareta Strömstedt är död

Family and education

Strömstedt was born in

Ljungby Ljungby () is the Urban areas in Sweden, central locality of Ljungby Municipality, Kronoberg County, Sweden, with 15,785 inhabitants in 2015. Ljungby was instituted in 1829 as a ''köping'', or ''market town'', and did not become a municipality o ...

on 19 May 1931, to August Henriksson, a

Free Church A free church is any Christian denomination that is intrinsically separate from government (as opposed to a state church). A free church neither defines government policy, nor accept church theology or policy definitions from the government. A f ...

minister, and Sigrid Bergma. She qualified as a teacher in

Lund Lund (, ;"Lund"
(US) and ) is a city in the provinces of Sweden, province of Scania, southern Swed ...

before continuing her university studies, graduating in 1956. In 1953 she married the publisher Bo Strömstedt (1929–2016). She was the mother of the musician

Niklas Strömstedt Bo Anders Niklas Strömstedt (born 25 July 1958) is a Swedish singer, songwriter and actor. Early life Bo Anders Niklas Strömstedt was born on 25 July 1958 in Lund, Sweden, to Gunhild Margareta (née Henriksson) and Bo Eugén Strömstedt. S ...

and the journalist Lotten Strömstedt.

Career

In the 1960s Strömstedt worked as a children's theatre critic for the newspaper ''

Dagens Nyheter (, ), abbreviated ''DN'', is a daily newspaper in Sweden. It is published in Stockholm and aspires to full national and international coverage, and is widely considered Sweden's newspaper of record A newspaper of record is a major nationa ...

''. In 1969 she trained with the broadcaster

Sveriges Radio Sveriges Radio Aktiebolag, AB (; "Sweden's Radio") is Sweden's national publicly funded radio programming, radio broadcaster. Sveriges Radio is a public limited company, owned by an independent foundation, previously funded through a television ...

, and worked as a producer there until 1985. Strömstedt's debut work for children, ''Fjärilar i klassen'', was published in 1961, followed in 1962 by ''Kom tillbaka, lilla Jenny!''. Her major breakthrough was in 1982 with the publication of the first book in a prize-winning series about a girl called Majken (''Majken, den nittonde december''). She also wrote books for adults, her first, the autobiographical novel ''Julstädningen och döden'', appearing in 1980. Many of her works reflected an interest in child welfare. She also wrote a biography of

Astrid Lindgren Astrid Anna Emilia Lindgren (; ; 14 November 1907 – 28 January 2002) was a Swedish writer of fiction and screenplays. She is best known for several children's book series, featuring Pippi Longstocking, Emil i Lönneberga, Emil of Lönneberga, ...

, published in 1977.

Recognition and later life

Strömstedt was awarded the Gulliver Prize in 1969 and was also the recipient of the

Astrid Lindgren Prize The Astrid Lindgren Prize () is a Swedish literary award for children's literature named after the Swedish writer Astrid Lindgren. The prize was instituted by the publishing house Rabén & Sjögren in 1967 to honour Lindgren on her 60th birthda ...

on two occasions, in 1986 and 2002. In 2007 she was awarded an honorary

PhD A Doctor of Philosophy (PhD, DPhil; or ) is a terminal degree that usually denotes the highest level of academic achievement in a given discipline and is awarded following a course of graduate study and original research. The name of the deg ...

from

Linnaeus University Linnaeus University (LNU) () is a state university in the Swedish historical province (''landskap'') Småland, with campuses located in Växjö and Kalmar. Linnaeus University was established in 2010 by a merger of former Växjö University a ...

.https://www.expressen.se/nyheter/forfattaren-margareta-stromstedt-ar-dod/ Strömstedt's final work, ''Jag skulle så gärna vilja förföra dig – men jag orkar inte'', was published in 2013. She died in

Stockholm Stockholm (; ) is the Capital city, capital and List of urban areas in Sweden by population, most populous city of Sweden, as well as the List of urban areas in the Nordic countries, largest urban area in the Nordic countries. Approximately ...

on 28 March 2023, at the age of 91.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Stromstedt, Margareta 1931 births 2023 deaths 20th-century Swedish women writers 20th-century Swedish translators People from Ljungby Strömstedt family Swedish children's writers Swedish journalists Swedish-language writers Recipients of the Astrid Lindgren Prize