By Rachel
Sakrisson
Guest
Columnist
Lake
Worth, FL, USA
Many people are familiar with Beatrix
Potter (1866-1943), the English creator of the beloved Peter Rabbit picture books whose illustrations and naturalism still
hold a place in anglophone children’s literature. However, many Americans readers
do not know about Swedish author Elsa Beskow (1874-1953), the “Beatrix Potter
of Scandinavia.” Both women focused heavily on illustrations of their
homeland’s natural landscape and both women were successful authors and
illustrators at a time when those fields were dominated by men. Coincidentally,
Beatrix Potter’s debut work The Tale of
Peter Rabbit and Elsa Beskow’s career-making Peter in Blueberry Land [Puttes
äventyr i blåbärsskogen] were both published in 1901. Upon publication of Peter in Blueberry Land, Elsa Beskow
started a career in which she would publish 31 picture books and would gain
lasting fame in the minds of Swedish children.
Although 1901 launched the careers of
Potter and Beskow onto a similar trajectory as cultural icons, the name of
Beatrix Potter is more easily recognizable for readers in the
United States.
The relative anonymity of Beskow within the borders of the United States does
not mean that Beskow is the lesser writer or illustrator, merely that her skill
has not had the opportunity to reach far beyond Sweden. Her books hold a vital
place in Scandinavian literature, education, and childhood understanding of
nature. Though the experience of Beskow’s books is hindered by a language
barrier, children in the United States who encounter her texts will not only
learn about Scandinavian culture, but also about the natural world around them.
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| Rachel Sakrisson |
Even though Beskow has been criticized
by some for her depictions of upper class life in 20thcentury Sweden
in books such as Aunt Green, Aunt Brown,
and Aunt Lavender [Tant Gron,Tant
Brun,och Tant Gredelin], her illustrations are drawn from personal
experience and contain the earnestness of authenticity. Aunt Green, Aunt Brown,
and Aunt Lavender are modeled after Beskow’s aunts who raised her after the
death of her parents. After she studied drawing at Konstfack, University
College of Arts, Crafts and Design, Beskow married Nathaniel Beskow in 1897 and
had six sons who also served as models for many of her characters. Forced to
draw her illustrations and compose her rhymes in the middle of the house,
Beskow was still able to create precise detail despite the distractions caused
by her family.
For a reader from the United States,
introduction to Beskow’s illustrations can become not only a source of
entertainment, but also a source of education. Beskow’s picture books introduce
the reader to a foreign culture which many children may not have the chance to
encounter. Her unique view of Swedish life and the natural world is integral to
the Swedish cultural consciousness. Many children are introduced to Beskow at
an early age and they absorb her depictions of Sweden into their identities. As
Margareta Bynning explains in Art Bulletin of Nationalmuseum
Stockholm (2002), “Her images, especially of the forest, have had a
great impact on many Swedes’ conception of nature” in part because “she
portrays nature from the child's perspective: the forest with its rich
vegetation towers in front of the viewer.” This type of illustration immerses
the child-reader in the environment Beskow creates, encouraging participation
in the Swedish landscape.
Like Peter in Blueberry Land, which presents a microscopic kingdom
hidden within the natural world, Woody,
Hazel, and Little Pip [Nutta och
Pillerill] is also depicted in miniature. Beskow’s focus on small woodland
animals who interact with equally small hazelnut children—members of society
constantly at a disadvantage because of their size—empowers the child and
allows him or her the opportunity to subconsciously learn the human role in the
environment.
Furthermore, Beskow offers the reader
practical, factual knowledge of the Swedish landscape as local plants play a
prominent role in her illustrations. For example, lingonberries are featured in
Peter in Blueberry Land, but this
fruit is not widely available or used outside of Sweden. Other picture books,
such as Ollie’s Ski Trip [Olle’s Skidfärd] and Around the Year [Årets Saga], educate the reader about the seasons and animate the
forces behind the weather into accessible characters such as King Winter, Jack
Frost, and Mrs. Thaw. Though Beskow’s illustrations are botanically accurate
and provide such factual knowledge, her stories contain the right amount of
fiction to make them entertaining for both children and adults.
Beskow’s addition of magical elements
such as fairies and trolls into her picture books sets her works apart from the
anthropomorphized animals of Beatrix Potter’s Peter Rabbit. This fairytale-like element does not make her
depictions of nature any less reliable, however. Her works are based in
reality, enabling her to educate readers about the world around them, but the
addition of magical aspects of inanimate nature are integral to the
Swedish-ness of her work. Without Beskow’s addition of the magical, her texts
would cease to be “typically Swedish” as Bynning describes them. In Children of the Forest [Tomtebobarnen], the troll adds a layer
of enchantment to the story, and encourages the children to play in the natural
environment. Folkloric figures like trolls and fairies are a major part of
Swedish culture and, as a result, must feature in her books alongside the
reality of the natural environment.
Especially in a climate in which
environmental awareness is becoming more and more of a contested topic, authors
like Beskow who allow the child-reader to encounter nature through the page
have a renewed and vital role in the sphere of children’s literature. Increased
recognition of Elsa Beskow will also help to illuminate the value of an
international and magical-realist perspective within Anglo-American children’s
literature. Her picture books work in tandem with Peter Rabbit and her influence has inspired and paved the way for
other Scandinavian writers who have wider recognition such as Astrid Lindgren,
the author of the Pippi Longstocking
series, and Tove Jansson, the creator of Moomin.
Though it has been a hundred years
since the publication of Peter in
Blueberry Land, Elsa Beskow and her illustrated Swedish landscape can and
should obtain a place on American bookshelves.
______________________________
Rachel Sakrisson is an honors student
at Palm Beach Atlantic University and the winner of the 2018 Carol Gay Award
from the Children’s Literature Association for her paper,