Pippi Longstocking quickly became popular in Sweden upon publication, and by the end of the 1940s, 300,000 copies had been sold, saving Rabén and Sjögren from impending financial ruin. This was partially due to Olenius's marketing: she ensured that the book was frequently read to a radio audience, as well as helping to put on a popular adaptation of the book at her children's theatre at
Medborgarhuset, Stockholm, in March 1946, for which only a library card was required for admission. This performance also toured other Swedish cities, including
Norrköping,
Gothenburg, and
Eskilstuna. Another factor in the book's success was two positive reviews by the influential Swedish critics of children's culture, Eva von Zweigbergk and Greta Bolin, writing for and , respectively; they praised the main character as "a liberatory force." Zweigbergk wrote that Pippi could provide an outlet for regular children who do not have the considerable freedom she possesses, with which Bolin agreed, remarking that Pippi's humor and antics would also appeal to adults for the same reason. Subsequent reviews of
Pippi Longstocking echoed the general opinions of von Zweigbergk and Bolin towards the book, until
John Landquist's criticism in an August 1946 piece published in , titled "BAD AND PRIZEWINNING." Landquist, who worked as a professor at
Lund University, argued that the book was badly done, harmful to children, and that Pippi herself was mentally disturbed. Further criticism of Pippi's supposedly "unnatural" and harmful behavior followed in an article in the teachers' magazine and in
readers' letters to magazines. This debate over Pippi's performance of childhood coloured the reviews of the sequel
Pippi Goes On Board (October 1946), some of which responded to Landquist's argument within the review itself. Regardless, Pippi continued to maintain her popularity and was featured in a range of merchandising, adaptations, and advertising. In 1950,
Pippi Longstocking was translated into American English by
Viking Books, featuring
Louis Glanzman's artwork. It did not become a bestseller, although sales did eventually improve after the initial release; more than five million copies had been sold by 2000. Pippi was positively received by American reviewers, who did not find her behavior "subversive" or problematic, but rather "harmless" and entertaining. Eva-Maria Metcalf has argued that Pippi was subject to a "double distancing" as both a foreign character and one believed to be
nonsensical, thus minimizing her potentially subversive actions that had stirred the minor controversy earlier in Sweden. As a result of Pippi and Lindgren's growing recognition in the United States, Pippi's behavior in later books became more critically scrutinized by literary critics, some of whom were less sure of the "hilarious nonsensical behavior, the goodness of her heart, and the freedom of her spirit" that had been lauded in earlier reviews. Reviewers of
Pippi in the South Seas in
The Horn Book Magazine and
The Saturday Review found Pippi to be less charming than in earlier books, with
The Saturday Review describing her as "noisy and rude and unfunny." as Pippi Longstocking An influential
television adaptation of Pippi Longstocking debuted on 8 February 1969 in Sweden, and was broadcast for thirteen weeks, during which it acquired a considerable following. It was directed by
Olle Hellbom, who later directed other adaptations of Lindgren's works.
Inger Nilsson starred as Pippi, and upon the broadcast of the television series, she became a celebrity along with her co-stars Pär Sundberg and Maria Persson, who played Tommy and Annika respectively. As a result of Lindgren's considerable unhappiness with the lesser-known Swedish
film adaptation of Pippi Longstocking (1949), she wrote the screenplay for the television adaptation, which stuck more closely to the narrative of the books than the film had. Scholar Christine Anne Holmlund briefly discussed the difference she found between the two iterations of Pippi, namely that
Viveca Serlachius's portrayal of Pippi sometimes took on middle-class sensibilities in a way that other iterations of Pippi had not, for example, purchasing a piano in one scene only to show it off in Villa Villakula. In contrast, the Pippi of Hellbom's television series and subsequent tie-in 1970 films,
Pippi in the South Seas and
Pippi on the Run, is an "abnormal, even otherworldly," periodically gender-defying
bohemian reminiscent of Swedish
hippies. Holmlund argued that both Gunvall and Hellbom's adaptations depict her as a "lovably eccentric girl." In the twenty-first century, Pippi has continued to maintain her popularity, often placing on lists of favorite characters from children's literature or feminist characters. She is regarded as the most well-known of Lindgren's creations, and appears as a character in
Astrid Lindgren's World, a theme park in
Vimmerby, Sweden, dedicated to Lindgren's works, and on the obverse of the
Swedish 20 kronor note, as issued by
Riksbank. Additionally, Pika's Festival, a children's festival in
Slovenia, borrows its name from her. Pippi has also inspired other literary creations: for his character
Lisbeth Salander in the
Millennium series,
Stieg Larsson was inspired by his idea of what Pippi might have been like as an adult. Pippi has continued to remain popular with critics, who often cite her freedom as part of her appeal.
The Independents Paul Binding described her as "not simply a girl boldly doing boys' things," but rather "[i]n her panache and inventiveness she appeals to the longings, the secret psychic demands of girls and boys, and indeed has happily united them in readership all over the world." Susanna Forest of
The Telegraph called Pippi "still outrageous and contemporary" and "the ultimate imaginary friend to run along rooftops and beat up the bad guys." In
100 Best Books for Children,
Anita Silvey praised the character as "the perfect fantasy heroine — one who lives without supervision but with endless money to execute her schemes." as Pippi Longstocking Pippi has been subject to censorship in translations. A censored edition of
Pippi Longstocking appeared in France, with changes made to her character to make her "a fine young lady" instead of "a strange, maladjusted child." Additionally, the publisher,
Hachette, thought that Pippi's ability to lift a horse would seem unrealistic to French child readers, and thus changed the horse to a pony. In response to this change, Lindgren requested that the publisher give her a photo of a real French girl lifting a pony, as that child would have a "secure" weightlifting career. Sara Van den Bossche has hypothesized that the lack of controversy as a result of the censorship might be why
Pippi Longstocking went mainly unremarked upon in France, whereas in Germany and Sweden, the book quickly became accepted within the countries' respective children's literature
canon, even as it stirred controversy over its "
anti-authoritarian tendencies." In 1995, an uncensored version of
Pippi Longstocking was released in France, which "shook" French readers, although the book did not reach the cultural status as it had in Germany and Sweden. The character has also centered in debates about how to handle potentially offensive racial language in children's literature. In 2014, the Swedish public broadcaster
SVT edited the 1969 television adaptation of
Pippi Longstocking with the approval of Astrid Lindgren's heirs: the first edit removed Pippi's reference to her father as "King of the Negroes," a term now offensive in Sweden; and the second eliminated Pippi slanting her eyes, although it kept her pretending to sing in "Chinese". These changes received a backlash: of the first 25,000 Swedish readers polled by the
Aftonbladet on
Facebook, eighty-one percent disagreed with the idea of removing outdated racial language and notions from
Pippi Longstocking, and the columnist Erik Helmerson of
Dagens Nyheter labelled the changes as censorship. One of Lindgren's grandchildren, Nils Nyman, defended the edits, arguing that to not do so might have diluted Pippi's message of female empowerment. ==Pippi books in Swedish and English==