Short answers, pulled from the story.
Astrid Anna Emilia Lindgren was born on the 14th of November 1907 in the rural village of Näs near Vimmerby in the province of Småland, Sweden. She grew up with an older brother named Gunnar and two younger sisters in a landscape of dense forests and rugged terrain.
The story of Pippi Longstocking began in 1944 when Lindgren told a tale to her sick daughter Karin to cheer her up. The manuscript won first prize in 1945 and was published with illustrations by Ingrid Vang Nyman after being initially rejected by Bonniers.
The Pomperipossa effect occurred in 1976 when Lindgren's marginal tax rate rose to 102 percent. She published a satirical allegory titled Pomperipossa in Monismania in the newspaper Expressen on the 3rd of March 1976 to protest the government's taxation policies.
Astrid Lindgren helped lead a campaign that resulted in a 1979 law in Sweden prohibiting violence against children. Her collaboration with veterinarian Kristina Forslund also led to the Lex Lindgren law, which was presented to her on her 80th birthday and was the strictest animal welfare law in the world at the time.
Astrid Lindgren died on the 28th of January 2002 at the age of 94. The government of Sweden instituted the Astrid Lindgren Memorial Award in her memory, which is the world's largest monetary award for children's and youth literature at five million Swedish kronor.
By 2010, Astrid Lindgren's books had sold roughly 167 million copies worldwide. Her works including Pippi Longstocking and Emil of Lönneberga have been translated into 95 different languages or variants.