Stockholm: Popular author's home to open to fans

The three-bedroom apartment above Stockholm's Wasahof restaurant was author Astrid Lindgren's home for 61 years. Photo / Creative Commons image by Wikimedia user Holger.Ellgaard

The apartment where Pippi Longstocking creator Astrid Lingren lived for more than half a century is set to be opened to the public.

The Stockholm home of late Swedish author Astrid Lindgren, who created popular fiction characters including Pippi Longstocking, is set to open for the general public in 2015.

"The home will show Astrid Lindgren the person, not the author or activist," Kjell Bohlund, president of the Astrid Lindgren Society, told Swedish television's arts programme Kulturnyheterna on Monday.

Lindgren, who died in 2002 at the age of 94, lived in the flat on Dalagatan for 61 years.

As part of the preparations to open the apartment to the public, the Lindgren Society interviewed people who were close to the author at work or in her daily life.

Among those interviewed was Irma Stegius, who cleaned Lindgren's apartment for more than 25 years.

"The Astrid Lindgren they describe was a person who lived for her family and was fond of her home," Bohlund said.

"She was unpretentious and her home was not very luxurious."

All the items in the apartment will be catalogued in 2014.

"We wish to able to tell interesting stories about the items. She got that bowl from (Russian president Boris) Yeltsin - how did that take place? That's the kind of thing we want to be able to convey to visitors," he said.

People have been able to take a virtual tour of Lindgren's home for several years, and twice a year members of the Lindgren Society have been granted access.

- DPA