Over the same period, she penned short stories and articles for publication, and subsequently drew illustrations for book covers, advertisements, and postcards.

For her work as a children's author she received the Hans Christian Andersen Medal in 1966; among her many later awards was the Selma Lagerlöf Prize in 1992.

Starting with the semi-autobiographical Bildhuggarens dotter (Sculptor's Daughter) in 1968, Jansson wrote six novels, including the admired[1] Sommarboken (The Summer Book), and five short story collections for adults.

Tove Jansson was born in Helsinki, in the Grand Duchy of Finland, an autonomous part of the Russian Empire at the time.

Her family, part of the Swedish-speaking minority of Finland, was an artistic one: her father, Viktor Jansson, was a sculptor, and her mother, Signe Hammarsten-Jansson, was a Swedish-born graphic designer and illustrator.

Jansson created the Moomintrolls, a family who are white, round and smooth in appearance, with large snouts that make them vaguely resemble hippopotamuses.

The book was not a success, but the next two installments in the Moomin series, Comet in Moominland (1946) and Finn Family Moomintroll (1948), brought Jansson some fame.

The first books, written starting during the Second World War, up to Moominland Midwinter (1957), are adventure stories that include floods, comets and supernatural events.

[8] The Moomins and the Great Flood deals with Moominmamma and Moomintroll's flight through a dark and scary forest, where they encounter various dangers.

[10] Finally, Moominsummer Madness (Farlig midsommar, 1955) is set in a theatre: the Moomins explore the empty building and perform Moominpappa's melodrama.

Jansson described it as a book about “what it is like when things get difficult”: the story focuses on Moomintroll, who wakes up in the middle of the winter (Moomins hibernate from November to April), and has to cope with the strange and unfriendly world he finds.

[13] Moominvalley in November, in which the Moomin family themselves never appear, is especially sombre in tone, possibly in consequence of the death of Jansson's mother during the year that it was written.

As the Moomins' fame grew, two of the original novels, Comet in Moominland and The Exploits of Moominpappa, were revised[b] by Jansson and republished.

[2] The personality of Tuulikki Pietilä, Jansson's partner, inspired the character Too-Ticky in Moominland Midwinter,[5][2] while Moomintroll and Little My have been seen as psychological self-portraits of the artist.

In the Second World War, during which Finland fought against the Soviet Union, part of the time cooperating with Nazi Germany,[21] her cover illustrations for Garm lampooned both Hitler and Joseph Stalin: in one, Stalin draws his sword from his impressively long scabbard, only to find it absurdly short; in another, multiple Hitlers ransack a house, carrying away food and artworks.

[2] In 1952, after Comet in Moominland and Finn Family Moomintroll had been translated into English, a British newspaper man, Charles Sutton, asked if Tove Jansson would be interested in drawing comic strips about the Moomins.

[23] The comic strip Moomintroll started in the London Evening News, which had a circulation of 12 million at that time, making it the world's largest daily newspaper.

Despite generally positive reviews, criticism induced Jansson to refine her style; her 1955 solo exhibition was simpler in detail and content.

[2] The National Biography of Finland describes Jansson as going "against the conventional image of an artist with her unusually even balance between visual art and writing.

[26] The scholar of literature Björn Sundmark states that Jansson's work helped to define how Tolkien's Middle-earth fantasy could be depicted visually.

In 1952, Jansson designed stage settings and dresses for Pessi and Illusia, a ballet by Ahti Sonninen (Radio tekee murron) which was performed at the Finnish National Opera.

[29] However, she eventually "went over to the spook side" as she is said to have put it —a coded expression for homosexuality[30][31][32]—and developed a secret love affair with the married theater director Vivica Bandler.

[36] The character Too-ticky, described by Sue Prideaux as "a wild-haired artistic troll in a Breton sweater and a beret",[23] was inspired by Pietilä.

[44] In March 2014, the Ateneum Art Museum opened a major centenary exhibition showcasing Jansson's works as an artist, an illustrator, a political caricaturist and the creator of the Moomins.

[46][47] In January 2016, a permanent Tove Jansson exhibition of murals, an oil painting, photographs and sketches opened at the Helsinki Art Museum.

[48] From June 2017 to September 2017, an exhibition of Jansson's paintings, illustrations, and cartoons was held in Kunstforeningen Gammel Strand in Copenhagen in collaboration with Ateneum in Helsinki.