Arvo Mägi

Arvo Mägi (born June 13, 1913 in the village of Koosa, today the rural municipality of Luunja , Tartu County , Estonia ; † November 27, 2004 in Stockholm , Sweden ) was an Estonian writer and literary historian in exile.

life and work

After graduating from high school in 1931, Arvo Mägi studied literary history and art history at the University of Tartu . In 1938 he passed his master's degree at the Philosophical Faculty with a thesis on Friedebert Tuglas . He then worked as a journalist in Estonia and Finland .

Before the Soviet occupation of Estonia, he fled to Sweden via Finland in 1944. There he made his way first as a draftsman and photo laboratory assistant . From 1953 he was a freelance writer. He became a member of the Swedish Writers' Union ( Sveriges Författarförbund ), the Estonian Association of Writers ( Välismaine Eesti Kirjanike Liit ) and the PEN .

Mägi wrote numerous novels , poems and dramas . He also published essays on Estonian literary history and literary criticism . He was one of the most active producers of Estonian exile literature during the Cold War. Occasionally he wrote under the pseudonym Juhan Timmukuru . At times Mägi worked with the Estonian writer Kalju Lepik . Both published under the community name Rein Kaljumägi .

Many short stories and novels by Arvo Mägis tell life against the background of historical events. Especially the Karvikute kroonika (1970–1973), which describes in four parts the development of the Estonians over a period of seven centuries and thirty generations, was a great success.

Works (selection)

• Hőbedane noorus (1949)
• Ringid vees (1952)
• Esimesed read (1953)
• Peep Koordipoja pőlistalu (1953)
• Uputus (1954)
• Egg lasta elada (1956)
• Kiusaja (1958)
• Paradiisi väravad (1960)
• Carnival (1962)
• Regivärsid (1963)
• Tants hemarusse (1964)
• Neli mandate (1966)
• Tuuleveski (1967)
• Taalrimäng (1968)
• Risti riik. Karvikute kroonikat 1 (1970)
• Uued isandad. Karvikute kroonikat 2 (1971)
• Őigus hőlma all. Karvikute kroonikat 3 (1972)
• Lippude vahetus. Karvikute kroonikat 4 (1973)
• Epiloog (1977)
• Kolm koda (1980)
• Liivimaa jutud (1983)
• Euroopa rahvaste ajaraamat (1984)
• Hingede helin (1985)
• Aeg kirju ei kuluta (1986)
• Nigulapäev (1988)
• Suvitusromaan (1991)
• Teine tera (1998)
• Mis meelde on jäänud (2001)
• Katk ja koolera (2003)

literature

• Helmi Eller: Arvo Mägi. Lund 1963 (= Meie kirjanikke 4)
• Cornelius Hasselblatt: History of Estonian Literature. Berlin, New York 2006 ( ISBN 3-11-018025-1 ), p. 577

Web links

• CV and works (Swedish)
• Janika Kronberg: Arvo Mägi ja tema aeg ( Postimees , June 13, 2003)

Individual evidence

1. ↑ before 1970 Sveriges Författareförening
2. ↑ Archived copy ( Memento of the original from June 10, 2007 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice.