# Is "Pippi Longstocking (Pippi Långstrump)" by Astrid Lindgren a First Edition?

> **Quick answer.** A first edition of Pippi Longstocking (Pippi Långstrump) by Astrid Lindgren (Rabén & Sjögren, 1945) is identified by: Stockholm: Rabén & Sjögren, 1945; published late November 1945 (26 November 1945 per the Astrid Lindgren Company and Swedish reference sources), the winning entry in Rabén & Sjögren's 1945 children's book competition, which closed 1 August 1945. The census claim is confirmed.

**Checklist — a true first has these:**
- Stockholm: Rabén & Sjögren, 1945; published late November 1945 (26 November 1945 per the Astrid Lindgren Company and Swedish reference sources), the winning entry in Rabén & Sjögren's 1945 children's book competition, which closed 1 August 1945
- Sedecimo (16:o), 174 pp., illustrated by the Danish artist Ingrid Vang Nyman — her cover design plus eight full-page black-and-white pen drawings — and issued in the publisher's decorated cloth-backed boards (förlagets dekorerade klotryggband)
- No number line, printing statement or issue point is documented for the Swedish first: identification rests on the 1945 Rabén & Sjögren title page, the Vang Nyman artwork and the 174-page collation
- Swedish auction and antiquarian records (Bukowskis, Stockholms Auktionsverk, Tigris Antiques) catalogue it simply as "Första upplagan 1945" without further state points, and no published Lindgren descriptive bibliography establishing states was located — so the copyright page and any upplaga (impression) statement must be compared directly against a confirmed first rather than assumed
- Treat any claimed state point for the Swedish first that is not corroborated here as unverified
- Publisher imprint reads Rabén & Sjögren
- Not a book-club edition (see below)

| | |
|---|---|
| Author | Astrid Lindgren |
| Publisher | Rabén & Sjögren |
| Year | 1945 |
| True first | US edition |
| Format | Children's / illustrated |
| Key point | Stockholm: Rabén & Sjögren, 1945; published late November 1945 (26 November 1945 per the Astrid Lindgren Company and Swedish reference… |
| Book-club edition exists? | Yes |

## Points of issue
Stockholm: Rabén & Sjögren, 1945; published late November 1945 (26 November 1945 per the Astrid Lindgren Company and Swedish reference sources), the winning entry in Rabén & Sjögren's 1945 children's book competition, which closed 1 August 1945. Sedecimo (16:o), 174 pp., illustrated by the Danish artist Ingrid Vang Nyman — her cover design plus eight full-page black-and-white pen drawings — and issued in the publisher's decorated cloth-backed boards (förlagets dekorerade klotryggband). No number line, printing statement or issue point is documented for the Swedish first: identification rests on the 1945 Rabén & Sjögren title page, the Vang Nyman artwork and the 174-page collation. Swedish auction and antiquarian records (Bukowskis, Stockholms Auktionsverk, Tigris Antiques) catalogue it simply as "Första upplagan 1945" without further state points, and no published Lindgren descriptive bibliography establishing states was located — so the copyright page and any upplaga (impression) statement must be compared directly against a confirmed first rather than assumed. Treat any claimed state point for the Swedish first that is not corroborated here as unverified.

## Is this the true first?
The census claim is confirmed. The Swedish Rabén & Sjögren edition of November 1945 is the true first; every English text is a translation, and in English the US precedes the UK by four years. New York: The Viking Press, 1950 (published 16 October 1950), translated by Florence Lamborn and newly illustrated by Louis S. Glanzman, is the first English-language edition. London: Oxford University Press, 1954, translated by Edna Hurup and illustrated by Richard Kennedy, is the first British edition — it took nine years to reach Britain. Both English editions are separately collected, but both are "first thus" rather than the first edition of the work: each carries a different translator and a different illustrator, so neither reproduces the 1945 book, and neither uses Vang Nyman's original artwork.

## Telling it from reprints & book-club editions
A 1950 Viking book-club edition exists and is the principal trap in English: its dust jacket is near-identical to the Viking trade first, so the jacket design alone will not separate them. Book-club tells for the period are a blind stamp (circle, square, dot, star or similar) on the lower rear board, thinner paper and smaller boards, an unpriced jacket flap where the trade jacket has the price present at the flap, and a "Book Club Edition" notice on the jacket flap. A ZIP code on the copyright page dates a copy after 1963 and rules out the 1950 printing outright. Viking's convention from 1937 was a "Published by The Viking Press in [year]" statement on the copyright page of firsts, but the exact wording on the 1950 Pippi was not verified against a confirmed copy and should not be quoted as a point without checking.

## Source
New Mexico Literacy Project — Is *Pippi Longstocking (Pippi Långstrump)* by Astrid Lindgren a first edition? https://newmexicoliteracyproject.org/first-edition/pippi-longstocking-pippi-l-ngstrump
CC BY 4.0. Part of the Canonical First-Edition Points of Issue dataset (https://newmexicoliteracyproject.org/api/first-edition-titles.json). Last reviewed 2026-07-04.