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Ain Kalmus ( pseudonym for Evald Mänd , in the German language as Ewald Mand known; * May 26 jul. / June 8, 1906 greg. In the village Tilga , then parish Emmaste , island Hiiumaa , Estonia ; †  15. November 2001 in Amherst (Massachusetts , USA ) was an Estonian writer and theologian .

Life

Ain Kalmus attended the Kuriste Orthodox School (now the Hiiumaa rural community ) and the Keila Baptist seminary . In his youth he worked as a seaman, among other things. From 1931 to 1935 he studied at the Andover Newton Theological School in Massachusetts theology . He then continued his studies in Tartu and Tallinn , where he also worked as a Baptist clergyman and editor of the religious journal Elukevade .

Before the occupation of Estonia by the Soviet Union , Kalmus and his family fled to Sweden via the Baltic Sea in September 1944 . In 1947 he moved on to the USA , where he worked as a Baptist clergyman and as a theology lecturer while emigrating.

Literary work

Ain Kalmus has published a wide variety of prose and poetry . He made his debut in the 1920s with poems and the volume of short stories Valgus ja varjud (1926). His breakthrough as a writer came in June 1944 with the novel Soolased tuuled ("Salty Winds"), which describes the life of the inhabitants of Hiiumaas in the 19th century.

The focus of his literary work is a trilogy about the life and struggle of the pagan Estonians between 1170 and 1240. It appeared in Sweden under the titles Jumalad lahkuvad Maalt (1956), Toone tuuled üle Maa (1958) and Koju enne õhtut (1964). In Estonia, most of his work could not appear until the mid-1990s, after regaining independence.

The novel Öö tuli liiga vara (1945/46) deals with the fate of an Estonian family from 1939 to 1945. In 1946 the novel Kaarnakünka about the fight of the Estonian forest brothers in 1941 followed. The novels Kodusadama tuled (1947) followed in Swedish exile ) and Hingemaa (1948).

Further historical novels a. a. with biblical motifs by Ain Kalmus are Prohvet (1950) on the prophet Hosea , Tulised vankrid (two volumes, 1953) and Juudas (1969). He also published his memoirs (four volumes; 1972, 1977, 1979 and 1981). Further novels , poems and theological reflections were published under his real name Evald Mänd .

literature

  • Cornelius Hasselblatt: History of Estonian Literature. Berlin, New York 2006 ( ISBN 3-11-018025-1 ), pp. 579f.

Web links

Remarks

  1. ↑ He got his literary pseudonym after the name of the farm of his ancestors, Kalmu .
  2. ↑ Eesti elulood. Tallinn: Eesti entsüklopeediakirjastus 2000 (= Eesti entsüklopeedia 14) ISBN 9985-70-064-3 , p. 134
  3. ^ German translation under the author's name Ewald Mand under the title "Die Ehe des Propheten", 1957
personal data
SURNAME Calamus, Ain
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Mänd, Evald; Mand, Ewald
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Estonian writer and theologian
DATE OF BIRTH June 8, 1906
PLACE OF BIRTH Tilga , then the parish of Emmaste , Hiiumaa Island , Estonia
DATE OF DEATH November 15, 2001
Place of death Amherst (Massachusetts) , USA