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Kasimir Agathon (Lönnbohm) Leino (1866-1919) |
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Finnish journalist, playwright, poet, and critic whose early works
championed the ideas of freedom and humanism, but who later withdrew
from daily polemics into dreams of beauty and historical imagination.
Kasimir Leino's prominent career in theatre gradually ended when his
health deteriorated. He wrote his major works between the years 1886
and 1905. Kasimir was overshadowed by his younger brother Eino Leino (1878-1926), the dominating figure in Finnish poetry at the turn of the century and the following two decades. Mitä huolin valtikasta, Kasimir Leino was born in Paltamo, Russian Finland, the sevent child of Anders Lönnbohm, a land surveyor,
and Anna Emilia (Kyrenius) Lönnbohm, the daughter Karl Henrik Kyrenius,
owner of the Tuokslahti manor. Both of his parents were culturally
active, but when Anders was a free-thinker, Anna was very religious. At
home the children produced small newspaper, and Kasimir wrote his first
poems at the age of 12. In 1879 Leino moved to Oulu where he studied at the Swedish
Lyceum, but after a few years of studies he moved to Kuopio where he
graduated in 1884 from the Private Swedish Lyceum of Kuopio. Next year
he entered the University of Helsinki, graduating in 1888. During this
period he also worked as a journalist in Hämeenlinna at Hämeen Sanomat under his brother Oskar Lönnbohm, who was the chief editor of the paper. Leino's first book Runokokeita
(1886), Leino's first book, was created in the spirit Hippolyte Taine.
His brother, Oskar Andreas Ferdinand (Antti) wrote poems under the name O. A. F. Mustonen, but stopped
publishing them after Kasimir's harsh criticism. He became a teacher and collector of folk poetry. Like Olavi Paavolainen some 30 years later, Kasimir Leino wanted to open windows to Europe. Between 1888 and 1890 he made trips Germany and France and in the summer of 1900 he travelled extensively in France, Italy, Greece, Hungary, and Poland, familiarizing himself with the latest developments in theatre.
Of all of his contemporary Finnish writers, Leino was the most
French-oriented, along with Juhani Aho and Joel Lehtonen. Besides books
for his personal reading, he brought with him back to Finland
first-hand knowledge on current trends in literature and the arts. He
did not feel comfortable in Helsinki, which he described in the short
story 'Neron tähteet' as "a cold city of leisure, exclusion and
personal despair". (Helsinki in Early Twentieth-Century Literature: Urban Experiences in Finnish Prose 1890-1940 by Lieven Ameel, Helsinki: Finnish Literature Society, 2014, p. 60) Upon joining the staff of the liberal newspaper Päivälehti (later Helsingin Sanomat), Leino became its leading literature critic. By the end of the century, he was considered along with Juhani Aho and
Arvid Järnefelt among the most influential writers.
After a stint in Paris preparing his doctoral thesis, he returned to
Helsinki, where he lectured on
November 1891 on French literature, and intruduced Symbolist ideas to the public. A
committed realist, Leino was quite critical towards
the new movement. However, his lecture marked the beginning of the
history of Symbolism – or Neo-romanticism – in Finland. Leino was not a
good lecturer, he didn't have a carrying voice, but the writer Maila Talvio noted in her memoir, that Leino was a social lion, who mastered the etiquette and technique of hand-kissing. Being interested in fashionable trends in thought, Leino wrote in 1894 for the Suomen Kuvalehti
a series of articles on occultism and spiritism. Captured by the ideas
of the Decadents, he argued in an article, 'New trends in
French literature,'
that they aimed at enlarging
spiritual insight, but the danger is that over-cultivation can get on
one's nerves too much. "Mihinkä tällainen kehitys vie, se on selvä:
ihmiskunnan sukupuuttoon. Sillä mokomaa "hermojen kehitystä" ei ihminen
kestä. Hänestä tahdotaan luoda jotakin yliluonnollista (un être
surnaturel), mutta eiköhän liene luonto paras luoja." ('Uusia suuntia ranskan kaunokirjallisuudessa' by Kasimir Leino, Valvoja, Vol. 12, No. 1, 1892, p. 35) Leino originated decadence and symbolism from Edgar Allan
Poe and Charles Baudelaire's ("hedonist, mystic, psychologist") Flowers of Evil. Edmond de Goncourt and Joris-Karl Huysmans are briefly introduced to the Finnish reading public. Driven by curiosity, Leino participated
in madame d'Espérance's spiritistic sessions and tried to figure out
her tricks. The male participants were asked not to drink any alcohol
or smoke for two weeks. However, Leino was
exempted from it, but he was not allowed to take any photographs. In
comparison with Theosophy, which had also arrived in Finland,
Leino considered spiritism less rational and less modern. Leino's doctoral thesis on the French writer and historian Prosper Merimée (1803-1870) appeared in 1895. He then worked as vice director of the Finnish Theatre (1895-96) and continued to write for newspapers, including Hämeen Sanomat, Uusi Suometar, and Päivälehti. In 1898-99 Leino edited with his brother Eino Leino the magazine Nykyaika, which took its model from the English Review of Reviews and the French Revue des Revues. Although they had 1,200 subscribers, the venture was not financially profitable and the brothers closed the magazine after a year. He disappeared from Helsinki's literature scene in 1899, when he was appointed director of the Finnish Regional Theater (Suomalainen Maaseututeatteri), established in Vyborg (Viipuri) and sponsored by Juho Lallukka. Leino traveled with the troupe around Finland for four years, and resigned from the company after quarreling with the board over the management and his salary. His own group, Suomen Näyttämö, functioned a year before closing. Kasimir Leino's poems were well received but he never gained
such popularity as his brother Eino. Nowadays his work is mostly
considered "formally faulty and factually shallow." More important than his poetic career was
his work as a literature and art critic. He wrote short stories, a
study of Minna Canth,
the biography of the painter Aleksander Lauréus, and translated works
from Merimée, Arthur Schnitzler, Guy de Maupassant, and Alphonse
Daudet, and others into Finnish. For the composer Jean Sibelius he
wrote lyrics for the Cantata for Conferment Ceremony of 1894. Leino's translation of Ibsen's play Brand was staged at the Finnish Theatre in Helsinki in the spring of 1899. Benjamin Leino, aged 47, was cast in the title role. As
a poet Leino represented realism in the early period of his career but
became then interested in Neo-romanticism, and was among the first to
make its theories known for the Finnish public. While in France Leino
had acquainted himself with Symbolist movement and published then two
articles dealing with its program and central poets, Mallarmé and
Verlaine. Although he first suspected that Symbolism is a short-term
phenomena, he stated in 1897 that it has replaced Realism. As an art critic he was especially interested in Akseli Gallén, Albert Edelfelt, Eero Järnefelt, Pekka Halonen, and Victor Westerholm – all central artists at the turn of the century. When Gallén famous painting Symposion – with the figures of Sibelius, Robert Kajanus, the painter himself, and Oskar Merikanto, who has passed out – was exhibited in 1894 at the National gallery, he interpreted it as a work presenting "a fleeting moment in when life's short dream and everlasting eternity were occupying the thoughts of these young men". The more prosaic general public saw only drunken celebrities seated round a table, with huge wigs covering much of the scene.
In his major collections, Ristiaallokossa (1890) and Väljemmillä vesillä (1893),
Leino sought for the truth, which was for him more important than
finding it. A free-thinker, he declared that "nature and god are just
names, the same thing, seen by diffferent eyes". Another central theme
was the defence of individualism: "Once there was just one tyrant, now
the great masses, thousands, imprison the thoughts." Leino did not
experiment with new poetic techniques that were emerging in the
literature, but kept on the traditional basis, in which rhyme, regular
rhythm, and melodious words were the central elements. 25 vuotta (1908), a selection of poems, and Kenraali V. Döbeln (1908), a play written before his mental breakdown, were Leino's last books. He contributed to the conservative Uusi Suometar some articles and composed a few poems. The Finnish Writers' Associaton arranged in 1916 a special celebration in honor of his work. In the poem
'Pakanallinen uni' (A pagan dream) Leino dreamed of visiting Tuonela,
the Land of the Dead, where his soul is weighted, and found too light.
He is sent back to life. "Ma Tuonen vaa'alla kun punnittiin, / viel'
aivan köykäiseks ma löydettiin / ja elon rantaan jälleen saatettiin". (25 vuotta: valikoima runoja by Kasimir Leino, Helsinki: Yrjö Weilin, 1908, p. 274) At a certain time of the night, Leino used to watch and salute
from behind his window a ghost, a black knight, riding in the woods. Signs
of Leino's deteriorating health were obvious in the
early 1910s. He could be spotted sitting at a café without moving four
hours, he was underweight, constantly depressed, and had problems in
taking care of himself. Unable to write, Leino lived unemployedin the last decade of his life. Because he had
no money for heating, he wore at his small home in Alberga (Leppävaara) a fur coat in cold weather. Kasimir
Leino died of cancer of liver on March 8, 1919, in Alberga. Beauty was
his god, summarized his brother Eino Leino. For further reading: 'Kasimir Leino', in Aleksis Kivestä Martti Merenmaahan: suomalaisten kirjailijain elämänkertoja (1954); Suomen kirjallisuus. 4, Minna Canthista Eino Leinoon, ed. by Matti Kuusi, Simo Konsala (1966); Kasimir Leino runoilijana by Väinö Kaukonen (1966); Elämän meri: tutkielmia uusromantiikan kirjallisista aatteista by Annamari Sarajas (1961, pp. 20-31); A History of Finnish Literature by Jaakko Ahokas (1973); 'Kasimir Leino', in Suomen kirjallisuus 2: runonlaulajista 1800-luvun loppuun by Eino Karhu (1979); Nykyajan kynnyksellä: kirjoituksia suomalaisen kirjallisuuden modernisaatiosta, ed. by Minna Toikka (1993); A History of Finland's Literature, ed. by George C. Schoolfield (1998); Kirjaton Eino Leino: tarinoita kodittomuuden ajasta by Esko Piippo (2009); Satiiri Suomessa by Sari Kivistö & H.K. Riikonen (2022) - Film: Runoilija ja Muusa (1978), directed by Jaakko Pakkasvirta, starring Esko Salminen as Eino Leino and Elina Salo as L. Onerva. The film also depicted Kasimir Leino's degration when he had lost his fight against a venereal desease that affected his nervous system. Selected bibliography:
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