Elin Toona

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Elin Toona (real name Elin-Kai Gottschalk , born July 12, 1937 in Tallinn ) is an Estonian writer .

Life

Elin Toona spent her childhood in Haapsalu with her grandmother Olga Enno, the widow of the poet Ernst Enno . At the end of the Second World War , she fled to Germany with her mother and grandmother , where she spent the first years of her primary school education in a refugee camp. In 1948 she moved to England and initially lived in a children's home in Leeds , and from 1959 in London . There she did an acting training, u. a. at the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art . At the same time she appeared in many television plays from 1960 on. In 1967 she married and emigrated to the USA, where she settled in Florida .

Elin Toona has been a member of the Estonian Writers 'Association in Exile since 1969 and has been a member of the Estonian Writers' Association since 1993 .

plant

Toona writes in both Estonian and English, but has written all of her major works in Estonian. Her first attempts at writing can be dated back to the early 1950s, when she won a writing competition organized for the most exiles in England. Her work has been published in magazines since 1955, soon also in the renowned exile Estonian journal Tulimuld .

Toona's book debut came in 1964 with a strongly autobiographical novel about her first years of exile in England. This book was already certified as having a “fluid, lively style with a light pen”, but she achieved her greatest success with her next novel, Lotukata (1969), which portrays life in the post-war German refugee years through the eyes of an eight-year-old girl. The novel is now one of the “classics of Estonian exile literature” and was continued over twenty years later with Three White Doves (1992). Here, too, the (depressing) post-war period is described, as - as the critics noted - Viivi Luik did in Estonia.

The Estonian community in exile remains the dominant theme in the author's further work. In The Last Daughter from Kaleviküla (1988) problems of the (aging) Estonian community in the USA are described, the fictitious place name is based on the Estonian epic Kalevipoeg and is intended to create a reference to Estonian. Ella evidently only deals with the author's grandmother, but once again throws light on the difficult early years of exile.

Awards

bibliography

  • Puuingel ('angel made of wood'). Lund: EKK 1964. 259 pp.
  • Lotukata ([proper name]). Lund: EKK 1969. 262 pp.
    • English translation by the author: In Search of the Coffee Mountains . Nashville, New York: Thomas Nelson Publishers 1997. 203 pp.
  • Sipelgas sinise kausi all ('The ant under the blue shell'). Lund: EKK 1974. 238 pp.
  • Kaleviküla viimne tütar ('The last daughter from Kaleviküla'). Lund: EKK 1988. 236 pp.
  • Kolm valget tuvi ('Three white doves'). Lund: EKK 1992. 211 pp.
  • Rõõm teeb taeva taga tuld. Ernst Enno ('Joy creates fire behind the sky. Ernst Enno '). Tartu: Ilmamaa 2000. 328 pp.
  • Ella ([proper name]). Tallinn: Kultuurileht 2008. 192 p. (Loomingu Raamatukogu)
  • Into Exile: A Life Story of War and Peace . Lakeshore Press 2013. 361 pp.
  • Mihkel, muuseas ('Mihkel, by the way'). Tallinn: Varrak 2018. 223 pp.

Literature on the author

  • Paul Laan: Kas inglid on ainult puust ?, in: Mana 4/1965, pp. 24-25.
  • Felix Oinas: Kuidas kirjanikud kirjutavad. Elin Toona, in: Tulimuld 1/1986, pp. 7-10.
  • Tiina A. Kirss: Elin Toona: Kaleviküla viimne tütar , in: World Literature Today 4/1990, pp. 671-672.
  • Anu Saluäär: Mitu seppa peavad seda parandama, in: Looming 6/1993, pp. 844-845.
  • Ülo Tonts: Lapselast kõneleb vanaisast, in: Keel ja Kirjandust 1/2001, pp. 59–60.
  • Helga Nõu : Elin, Elin! 40 aastat kirjavahetust Elin Toonaga, in: Looming 7/2007, pp. 1053-1072; 8/2007, pp. 1206-1227.
  • Janika Kronberg : Rohkem kui vanaemast, in Looming 9/2009, pp. 1293-1296.
  • Rutt Hinrikus: Elin Toona loomingu autobiograafilisus, in: Adressaadi dunaamika ja kirjanduse pingeväljad. Tartu: Tartu Ülikooli kirjastus 2016, pp. 190–201.
  • Märt Väljataga : Pool matust ja poolteist pulma, in: Looming 12/2018, pp. 1784–1786.

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Eesti kirjanike leksikon. Koostanud Oskar Kruus yes Heino Puhvel. Tallinn: Eesti Raamat 2000, p. 605.
  2. ↑ Eesti kirjandus paguluses. XX sajandil. Toimetanud Piret Kruuspere. [Tallinn:] Eesti TA Underi ja Tuglase Kirjanduskeskus 2008, p. 234.
  3. ↑ Paul Laan: Kas inglid on ainult puust ?, in: Mana 4/1965, p. 25.
  4. ↑ Eesti kirjandus paguluses. XX sajandil. Toimetanud Piret Kruuspere. [Tallinn:] Eesti TA Underi ja Tuglase Kirjanduskeskus 2008, p. 235.
  5. ↑ Anu Saluäär: Mitu seppa peavad seda parandama, in: Looming 6/1993, p. 845.
  6. ^ Cornelius Hasselblatt : Kalevipoeg Studies. The Creation and Reception of an Epic. Helsinki: Finnish Literature Society - SKS 2016, p. 45. (Studia Fennica Folkloristica 21)
  7. ↑ Janika Kronberg: Rohkem kui vanaemast, in Looming 9/2009, pp. 1293-1296.
  8. ↑ Communication in Tulimuld 1/1970, p. 54.
  9. ↑ There is a German translation of the novel with the title Lottermütze , which, however, did not appear in print. Cornelius Hasselblatt: Estonian literature in German translation. A reception story from the 19th to the 21st century. Wiesbaden: Harrassowitz 2011, p. 257.
personal data
SURNAME Toona, Elin
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Gottschalk, Elin
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Estonian writer
DATE OF BIRTH July 12, 1937
PLACE OF BIRTH Tallinn