Plus Licens: Emil

ASTRID LINDGREN'S STORIES about Emil - a good-natured little boy with a propensity for getting into trouble through (mostly unintentional) "pranks" - are for many readers inseparable from the classic illustrations by Swedish artist Bjorn Berg. Berg's illustrations are well-known also outside Scandinavia and have been used in several foreign-language translations of the Emil books, including Poland, the Czech and Slovak Republics, the Baltic states, and of course the edition of Astrid Lindgren's complete works in Russia by AST.

Emil - known as Michel in Germany, Michiel in the Netherlands and Zozo in France - is one of Astrid Lindgren's most popular characters internationally, translated into 44 languages (second only to Pippi Longstocking and The Brothers Lionheart). Emil and his little sister Ida live in Katthult, a farm in the Swedish province of Smaland around the turn of the previous century. The household also includes his father Anton, his mother Alma, the maid Lina, the farmhand Alfred and the little pig Piglet - the two latter being Emil's best friends. Emil is not really mischievous but has a tendency to cause "pranks", to the sorrow of his mother and the rage of his father, and often ends up in the farm's woodshed, carving his "little wooden men". Astrid Lindgren has borrowed settings as well as characters for her books about Emil from her father's stories about his childhood in the province of Smaland.

In late 1962, Astrid Lindgren first contacted Bjorn Berg - already a renowned newspaper artist - to order illustrations for her new book to be published next summer: a story centered around a little boy called Emil. Berg illustrated the three original Emil storybooks (1963, 1966, 1970) as well as further picture books with highly fluent water-colour illustrations to old and new Emil stories from 1972 to 1997.

"What you see should immediately proceed to the hand" was a credo for Berg, whose intense, vivid line was very well suited to the pace and frenzy of the Emil stories. A keen eye for caricature and everyday humor combined with dynamic composition gives visual power to the often absurd happenings and situational comedy of Lindgren's stories - as in the classic scenes when Emil hoists his sister Ida up the flagpole, or gets his head stuck in the soup tureen.

Bjorn Berg (1923-2008) was born in Bayern to Swedish parents. From three years of age, he lived in New York and did not return to Sweden and Stockholm until 1935. His artistic schooling included studies for Fernand Léger and André Lhote in Paris as well as the Royal Academy of Fine Arts in Stockholm. In 1971, Berg was awarded with the Elsa Beskow prize, Sweden's most prestigious award for children's book illustrators, for his illustrations to the Emil and Mrs. Pepperpot books.

Plus Licens represents Saltkråkan AB for Astrid Lindgren's literary works and Bildmakarna Berg AB for Bjorn Berg's illustrations to Astrid Lindgren's literary works in the following territories: Albania, Andorra, Australia, Austria, Belgium, Bosnia-Herzegovina, Bulgaria, Croatia, Cyprus, Czech Republic, Denmark, Eire, Estonia, Finland, France, FYR Macedonia, Germany, Greece, Hungary, Iceland, Italy, Japan, Latvia, Liechtenstein, Lithuania, Luxembourg, Malta, Monaco, Montenegro, Netherlands, Norway, Poland, Portugal, Romania, San Marino, Serbia, Slovak Republic, Slovenia, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland, Turkey, United Kingdom, Vatican City (merchandising rights); Armenia, Azerbaijan, Belarus, Georgia, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Moldova, Russia, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan, Ukraine, Uzbekistan (merchandising and publishing rights).