The Memoirs of Moominpappa

By Tove Jansson

“One cold and windy autumn evening many years ago a newspaper parcel was found on the doorstep of the Home for Moomin Foundlings. In that parcel I lay, quite small and shivering with cold.”

So begins Moominpappa’s remarkable memoirs about his amazing life, an autobiography written to delight his son Moomintroll and friends. One fabulous tale follows another, and not just about Moominpappa but Sniff and Snufkin’s fathers too – the rather muddled Mudller and the carefree Joxter.

The tales tell about Moominpappa’s and his friends wild youth and reveal how their parents met each other. Add to this mix the genius inventor Hodgkins, and a grand finale in which Moominpappa rescues a shipwrecked Moominmamma from the waves – and the fun becomes irrestible.

The Memoirs of Moominpappa was first published under the title The Exploits of Moominpapa. In the early 1960s Tove Jansson substantially revised this text, redrawing pictures and reinstating her preferred title. 

Publishing information

About the author

Tove Jansson (1914-2001), Finnish-Swedish writer and artist, achieved worldwide fame as the creator of the Moomins, written and illustrated between 1945 and 1970. The books about the brave, adventurous, yet family-focused and home-loving Moomins have been translated into more than 60 languages and are still in print all over the world today.The Moomins were, of course, only a part of Jansson’s prodigious output. Already admired in Nordic art circles as a painter, cartoonist and illustrator, she would go on to write a series of classic novels and short stories. She remains Scandinavia’s best-loved author.Tove Jansson’s work reflected the tenets of her life: her love of family and nature, and her insistence on freedom to pursue her art. “Work and love” was the motto she chose for herself and her approach to both was joyful and uncompromising.