 
Choose another writer in this calendar: by name: by birthday from the calendar.
TimeSearch |
|
Ilmari Kianto (1874-1970) - surname Calamnius until 1906 - wrote also as Antero Avomieli, I-Calamnius-Kianto |
|
Finnish writer and memoirist, whose best known novels are Punainen viiva (1909, The Red Line) and Ryysyrannan Jooseppi (1924, Joseph of Ryysyranta), both strong portrayals of rural characters. Ilmari Kianto's depiction of the poverty in the backwoods criticized the gap between political rhetoric and true living conditions of the poor. He did not idealize peasants as Maila Talvio did in her work, but wanted to show an undistorted picture of the people to crush the upper classes' unrealistic Runebergian beliefs. "The inner sufferings of poor backwoods dwellers cannot be imagined by many people in the great world. If an omniscient being exists, he it is who alone knows them, but perhaps tells nobody. The mockery of those more fortunate may sometimes be justified, but raw reality does not change its coat like the squirrel in the woods." (The Red Line, in A History of Finland's Literature, edited by George C. Schoolfield, 1998, pp. 128-129) Ilmari Kianto was born at Pulkkila in northern Finland, near the birthplace of Pentti Haapää. His father, August Benjamin Calamnius, was a Lutheran minister, from a family filled with a long line of ministers and learned men. One of Kianto's forefather's, Gabriel Calamnius, wrote the first collection of wordly poems, entitled Suru-Runot Suomalaiset (1755). The family moved in 1879 to Suomussalmi, into Karhula's parsonage. Kianto's childhood was happy. He developed a life long affection to the Russian Carelia, where he frequently travelled, but closest to his heart were the miserable, moonshining people of Kainuu. In 1893 Kianto served in the famous Fusilier Battalion of the
Finnish Guards. His first book, Väärällä uralla (On the
wrong track), came out in 1897. In this partly autobiographical novel
the narrator starts a military career but at the same time
perceives that it is wrong. Soutajan lauluja (1897) was reviewed by his
friend Eino Leino in the Päivälehti.
At that time, Kianto used to sit with Leino, S. Ingman, Teuvo Pakkala, and
Yrjö Weijola at the café and restaurant Kappeli on Esplanade, popular
amongst both the bohemians and the bourgeoisie. After studies at the University of Helsinki, Kianto received in 1900 his M.A. From 1901 to 1903 he studied Russian literature in Moscow, in order to enter a career as a Russian teacher. Later he published Finnish translations of Pushkin's and Lermontov's poems, and Ivan Goncharov's Oblomov. Before becoming a full-time writer, Kianto worked in the town of Kajaani in northern Finland as a teacher, and then as a journalist and freelance writer. Several of Kianto's books were based on his own experiences
and literature critics have considered the confessional roman à clef as
his primary genre. During his sexual crisis at the shift of the
centuries, Kianto published his fourth poetry collection, Margareeta,
and a confessional book, Vapaauskoisen psalttari. Developing views in
total opposition to the church and his ecclestiastic family, Kianto
wrote Pyhä viha (Holy wrath), which criticized the lifestyle of the
upper classes and especially the clergy. At one point of the novel, the
steeple of a church is brought down by a very strong sermon.
Kianto had adopted ideas of Emilé Zola, Georg Brandes, Björnstjerne
Björnson, and others, which shocked his readers as well as the religious
worldview of his sister Aina and his mother. Under the influence of his Tolstoyan friend Arvid Järnefelt, Kianto seceded from the church. He also started a correspondence with Leo Tolstoy. When Kianto married for the first time in 1904, he went with his fiancée to Sweden, where the civil cermony was legal. In the same year, when his marriage disintegrated, he published the novel Avioliitto (1917), in which he expresed his support to the practice of multiple marriage. In 1909 Kianto settled in Suomussalmi, where he had spent his early years, and published in the same year his first major work, Punainen viiva. Nothing much happens in the narrative, except at the end. The red line of the title is the mark of illiterate voters, used when equal rights for voting were first granted. And it is the bloody mark of a mortal wound when a bear kills the central character, Topi of Korpiloukko. In 1910 Kianto travelled in Germany and Switzerland, and started to build his own house, Turjanlinna (Turja's Castle), on the shore of lake Kianta. The house was finished in 1912. Kianto made in 1914 a big journey in Russian Carelia. His first marriage ended practically in 1917
(officially 1932), when he publicly took a second wife. Kianto was married
three times, widowed twice, and divorced once, and he had altogether 12
children. Feeling that his work did not attract enough critical
attention, he envied the success of other major writers, especially
that of Eino Leino and F.E. Sillanpää. Under the pressure of his family affairs and financial crisis
in the
1920s, Kianto travelled compulsively. He started to keep "a secret
diary" again in 1926-27; it was not published until 1980. In it Kianto
analyses his relationships with his three wives, their moods and
quarrels, and states defying that "this diary is not written for
chickens." Kianto's open support of polygamy did not surprise his
closest friends, and Kianto was also disappointed with the prohibition
law, expressing his protest in K.H.P.V. (1925), meaning "The Holy
Fraternal Order of the Moderate Drunks. When the author did not have
any liquor in his cellar, he could write a poem to the local pharmacist
to get some spiritus fortis: "Taas on viina loppununnan / Turjanlinnan
kellarista. / Tynnyr tyhjäks tippununna / Tai lie päässyt vantehista, /
Ai ai ai, voi voi voi..." In these conditions Kianto compiled his
second masterwork, Ryysyrannan Jooseppi.
The lazy protagonist,
Joseph, is a bootlegger and the father of about eight or nine children.
Ryysyranta is the name of the ramschackle cottage of the family. Joseph, a
distant relative of Rousseau's "noble savage" or Joel Lehtonen's Juutas Käkriäinen is treated with humour and psychological insightfulness. Joseph is well aware that God is not on his side.
At the end he is killed by a falling tree; in the epilogue, as hel lays dying, he dreams of meeting the Lord in heaven. The real-life model for the
character was Jooseppi Kyllönen, a poor peasant. At the age of 40, he was already worn out and looked like a
70-year-old man. A lot of his life in the backwoods went into the book.
During the 1930s, Kianto concentrated his writing on diaries and
letters. His big house Turjanlinna went
bankrupt and personal worries about his children and wives burdened his
days. On the eve of the Winter War (1939-40), the 65-year-old author left house. In a note, written in Russian for the
Soviet Army, he asked not to destroy a poor writer's home. "Venäläiset toverit!
Kunnioittakaa sivumenolla köyhän kirjailijan kotia. Tuossa on saari
autiona ynnä huvila itäänpäin muine rakennuksineen. – Olen minäkin
ollut Moskovassa v. 1901-1903." However, the Russians never reached
Turja's Castle and Finnish soldiers found the message. Kianto was
imprisoned for treason. Although Kianto was pardoned and rehabilited after the war,
this event depressed him deeply. His feelings of frustration Kianto
poured into Omat koirat purivat (1948, Bitten by own dogs). Mikko Niskanen adapted the book for the screen in 1974. Punainen viiva and Ryysyrannan
Jooseppi had already been made into films. Punainen viiva was also turned into an opera, composed by Aulis
Sallinen. It was first produced in 1978 by the Finnish National Opera with Okko Kamu conducting. A new Turja's Castle was built in 1949, but it burned down the same year – uninsured. In 1956, Kianto married Ella Mirjam ('Mirkku') Lähteinen – she had entered the author's life in the early 1950s and died in June 1961. She was the last lady of the house in Turja's Castle. After the war he had had several female secretaries, whom he mostly recruited by newspaper advertisements. According to the author's son Uolevi Kianto, most of them could even use the typewriter, but more important were their rowing skills and intimate company with the author, who did not want to spend his nights alone. The last decades of his life Kianto spent as a celebrated author, the patriarch of Finnish literature, who ironically called himself a "writer of the woods." His works were reprinted and also adapted into screen. Kianto died in Helsinki on April 27, 1970. He was buried near Turja's Castle in Suomussalmi, where his statue, by sculptor Kain Tapper, is situated. – Some 15 of Kianto's works are still unpublished, 67 works have been published, including collected works. For further reading: Suomussalmen sulttaani: Ilmari Kiannon elämä by Panu Rajala (2018); Nälkämaan keisari: kuvia Ilmari Kiannon Suomesta 1874-1970, edited by Raija-Liisa Kansi (2017); 'Ilmari Kianto,' in Haltiakuusen alla: suomalaisia kirjailijakoteja by Anne Helttunen, Annamari Saure (2013); Ilmari Kianto: korpikirjailijan elämä by Eero Marttinen (2010); A History of Finland's Literature, edited by George C. Schoolfield (1998); Ilmari Kianto: Anarkisti ja ihmisyyden puolustaja by Maria-Liisa Nevala (1986); Tervetuloa kotiin, Iki by Uolevi Kianto (1978); Kansanrakastaja vai kansanvihollinen by Juhani Niemi (1977); 'Ilmari Kianto (1874-1970,' in A History of Finnish Literature by Jaakko Ahokas (1973); Ilmari Kianto ja Vienan Karjala by Hannes Sihvo (1969); Saat kertoa kaiken, sanoi Iki-Kianto by Uolevi Kianto (1967); 'Ilmari Kianto' by Rafael Koskimies, in Suomen kirjallisuus IV: Minna Canthista Eino Leinoon, edited by Matti Kuusi, Simo Konsala (1965); Huumorin sukupolvi by Unto Kupiainen (1954); ''Ryysyrannan Jooseppi,' in Kuuntelua: esseitä teoksista ja tekijöistä by Aaro Hellaakoki (1950); 'Ilmari Kianto,' in Aleksis Kivestä Martti Merenmaahan: suomalaisten kirjailijain elämäkertoja (1954); Ilmari Kianto by Vihtori Laurila (1944); '"Soutajan laulujen" aikoina' by Ilmari Kianto, in Kuinka meistä tuli kirjailijoita (1916) - Note: Kianto's house Turjanlinna (Turja's Castle) is nowadays popular visiting place for tourists. - Kiitokset: Parhaat kiitokset Raija-Liisa Kiannolle avusta - itse asiassa perusteellisesta toimitustyöstä - tämän sivun kanssa. Ilmari Kianto -seuran sivut kertovat lisää kirjailijasta. Selected works:
|
