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Outsider (1904-1961) - Real name A A R N E H A A P A K O S K I. Pseudonyms: Henrik Horna, Viktor Mario, William B. Harrow, Rigor Morton, Charles Snyder, Rautamies, Jack B. Murphy, etc. |
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Prolific Finnish pulp writer and journalist, best known for his characters Pekka Lipponen and Kalle-Kustaa Korkki. From the 1930's to the 1960's Outsider wrote totally over 200 novellas and nearly 3000 short stories. Outsider's writings have been translated into English, Swedish, and Danish. "Pekka Lipponen asteli salkku kainalossa hotelli Pyramiden halliin. Hän pysähtyi tuokioksi portaille ja silmäili ympärilleen. Pirskatti! Kalle-Kustaa oli taaskin myöhässä. Oli sovittu puoli kahdeltatoista tapaamisesta eikä miestä näkynyt missään. Sehän oli aivan Kalle Kustaan tapaista, myöhästyi aina ja keksi sitten kaikenlaisia selityksiä. Ei ikinä, ei milloinkaan Kalle-Kustaasta tule ähväärimiestä. On ollakseen iso herra ja öljyekspertti, mutta höpsyttelee kaikenlaista ja narraa syyttömiä ihmisiä suotta . . ." ('Suezin sulttaani,' in Pekka Lipponen kaukomailla by Outsider, Aviador Kustannus, 2021, p. 10; first published by Ajanviete in 1956) Aarne Haapakoski was born Aarne Viktor Laitinen in Pieksämäki, the son of Viktor Laitinen, a farmer, and Mathilda (Vauhkonen) Laitinen. At school he was not an exceptional pupil, though he showed an aptitude for drawing. When Haapakoski was sixteen, he joined the Civil Guards, and served behind the front lines in 1918 during the Civil War. While in secondary school, he began to write poems. After military service in 1922, Haapakoski moved to Helsinki, where he worked in a furniture shop. In 1926 Haapakoski went to Paris to study art but started to write for magazines and study journalism at Sorbonne. From 1927 to 1928 he worked as a journalist in Paris and Berlin, and then two years in London. Haapakoski returned to Finland in 1930. He continued to contribute to a number of magazines, and also participated in the activities of the Patriotic People's Movement (IKL). Some of his stories, such as 'Tuottavaa liiketoimintaa' and 'Kloakkien kauhu' repeated stereotypical views on Jews, but the primary element of IKL's agenda was opposition to communism. (Juutalaisvastaisuus suomalaisissa aikakauslehdissä ja kirjallisuudessa 1918-1944 by Jari Hanski, Helsingin yliopisto, 2006, p. 112) Haapakoski's first book, a detective novel titled Mustalais-suon
arvoitus (1931),
was published at his own expence under the name Aarne Haapakoski. It
was based on a true crime story about Tattarisuo, where parts of human
bodies were found in 1930-31. The far right press spread rumours about
the involvement of the Freemasons. Moreover, the local gypsies were
suspected of the crime, and
a politically suspicious caretaker, who worked at a morgue, was
examined by the police. Haapakoski's protagonist is a journalist Martti
Kyttä who chases Soviet agents. The culprits are members of a secret
society resembling the Freemasons. At the time of the publication of the novel, the
mystery was still unsolved. It
turned out that the remains were stolen
from the Malmi cemetery and had been used in a black magic ritual by
people from the bottom of society, who believed that it is possible to
gain wealth by occult means. ('Tattarisuom ritualistit
1930,' in Huu-haa Suomen historia by
Vesa Sisättö, Helsinki: SKS Kirjat, 2022, pp. 122-135) Rintaman takana (1933), a play, appeared in the
magazine Hakkapeliitta. The
spy story Madame Saahl'in salaisuus (1934)
was published at Haapakoski's own expence. His pseudonym "Outsider"
was invented by the editor Yrjö Halme.
"Ja ensi numerosta alkaa sitten salanimi "Outsiderin" repäisevä
juttusarja, kokoelma salapoliisikertomuksia. Kun "Outsider" on
sanottavansa sanonut aloitamme Marton Taigan uutta . . . " ('Toimittaja pakisee' by Iso-Karhu [Yrjö Halme], in Lukemista Kaikille, No. 46, 1937,
pp. 19-20) In 1932 Haapakoski worked for Vapaa Suomi and from
1935 to 1941 he was a staff member of the magazine Seura,
writing travel stories. He married Frida Kunnas in 1935, and changed
officially his name from Laitinen to Haapakoski. In 1938 he
participated with his novel Viisi tikaria (pub.
1941) in the Nordic detective novel competition, in which Mika Waltari's Kuka murhasi rouva Skrofin?
won the first prize in Finland. During the Winter War (1939-40) and the Continuation War (1941-44) he served in the Army as an officer and a war correspondent. Haapakoski was discharged after becoming seriously ill. In 1943 he moved with his family to Pieksämäki in the villa Hornanlinna, designed by the architecht Aatto Korhonen. There he lived for the rest of his life. Between 1941 to 1948 Haapakoski wrote 18 books depicting the adventures of Klaus Karma. At the beginning, he was a lawyer, but later entered the scene under the same name but as an architect and nephew of the first Klaus Karma. An excellent citizen, Karma fought against the Bolsheviks in Talo Džeršinskajan varrella (1942) and Nunnat nukkuvat (1942); its first edition was 15,500 copies. Differing from private investigators, who rely on their deductive powers, Karma occasionally received supernatural messages. Under the pseudonym Henrik Horna, Haapakoski poured out fast-moving thrillers, which often had horror elements and exotic locations. The criminals were usually foreigners. Plans to translate Karma novels into German were cancelled after the publishing company Langer&Co. K.-G was destroyed in Dresden in a bombing. In Vakooja BZ 7 (1944) the Finnish hero is saved from a dangerous situation by a female German spy, who is working for Gestapo and searching in Finland for a Jewish saboteur. Karma books were among the most popular detective stories published in Finland. They sold over 20 000 copies. Later these books became collector's pieces and much sought-after items from second-hand bookshops. In the 1990s the publishing company Seaflower started to reprint Haapakoski's works, among them Karma's adventure Keskiyön murha. In the story Mr. Käpy (M.A.), the new subeditor of a newspaper, is found murdered. Haapakoski depicts with humour the stereotyped journalists working for the newspaper Aamuposti; there's a music critic, Byfelt, who uses words nobody understand, and a reporter who is always broke and drinks too much. A beautiful dancer and cocaine peddlers are involved in the case. I turns out that Byfelt and Käpy were cocainists and the murderer was a former actor also writing for the newspaper. "Olen joskus ajatellut sanomalehtimiehen uraa - en pöytänsä ääressä nukkuvan toimittajan, vaan hyvän reportterin. Luulen, että osaisin kirjoittaa melko hyvän jutun näistä aineksista. Kun joskus rupean kirjoittamaan muistelmiani, tulee tälle jutulle nimeksi "Keskiyön murha". Eikö ole sopiva nimi. Murhahan tuli ilmi melkein tasan kello kaksitoista yöllä." (from Keskiyön murha by Outsider, SAGA Egmont, 2021; first published by Otava in 1941) In Merirosvolaivurin aarre (1944) the hero is Jukka Korppi, a former French Foreign Legionaire and officer of the Finnish Army. The story starts in New York and continues with treasure hunt in the Caribbean. In a cave Jukka finds from a human skull a letter from the 17th century, written in comic dialect perhaps by Pekka Lipponen's forefather. Jukka and his friends have some troubles with a Chinese criminal and Jack Thompson, a gangster from Chicago, but he eventually finds the treasure, and is rescued by the U.S. Coast Guard. Haapakoski launched his most successful series in 1945, when he began to write radio plays about Kalle-Kustaa Korkki and his stuttering friend, the businessman Pekka Lipponen. Basically they formed a hero/sidekick pair, perhaps partly inspired by Bob Hope and Bing Crosby team. Pekka Lipponen is a genial and childish country man from Rantasalmi, an international enterpriser who speaks with rural dialect, he stutters (his favorite swear word is "pi-pi-pirskatti), takes small drinks, whereas his friend Kalle-Kustaa, an international oil-company agent, is a more traditional hero, strong, hard-boiled, and somewhat arrogant. Ben Huronin testamentti
(The testament of Ben Huron), the first radio show, was broadcast in
1945 with great success. Most likely the
name Ben Huron was modified from Lew Wallace's famous novel Ben-Hur. No explanation
is
given who the mysterious Ben Huron is and why he has left Kalle-Kustaa
Korkki in his
will a tresure map. The constant joke is that whenever Pekka Lipponen
asks more about the testament, Korkki promises that he tell more about
it later but never does. Oke
Tuuri, a National Theatre actor, gave his voice to Pekka Lipponen, and
the actor and film director Wilho Ilmari was Kalle-Kustaa Korkki.
Yleisradio broadcast 19 Lipponen and Korkki radio plays, most of which
were also transformed into book form. In this Outsider was helped by
Antero Virkki (pseudonym of Aarne Talasmo), and Pertti Pakkanen.
Virkki's novelette version of Kaksihuippuisen
vuoren salaisuus: Kalle Kustaa Korkin seikkailuja 2 came out in
1946. It was also
adapted by Martti Löfberg, but Haapakoski was
not completely satisfied
with the result; Löfberg's style was rather too verbose for
Haapakoski's taste. This novelette was published in 1958 (Kalle-Kustaa
Korkin seikkailuja 4). ('Outsiderin "Huippisten" monta
muotoa' by Markku Kailaheimo, in Ruumiin
kulttuuri, No. 1, 2019) Outsider's Huuhkajalinnan kaviomarssi was adapted into screenplay, Kalle-Kustaa Korkin seikkailut (1949) by Ilmari Unho, the director, and Kaarle Hirvonen – he later worked as a history teacher at the University of Helsinki, and translated Greek and Latin classics by authors such Aristophanes, Lucian, and Plato. Ilmari Unho had been a member of the fascist IKL before the wars. Pekka Lipponen is the central character in the book, not
Kalle Kustaa of the movie title, who nevertheless doesn't show up in
the
first third of the film. Pekka arrives from South-America
to Finland.
He is followed by to international criminals, Henry William and Mary
Morton. Pekka has inherited his uncle Teodor, and goes to Huuhkajalinna
manor. The confusing plot then includes Latin American mandolin
players, a chess
board, diamonds, an ape-man fron travelling circus, horse and dynamite.
Despite the popularity of the characters in radio play productions, only two films were made: Kalle Kustaa-Korkin seikkailut (the most racist and chauvinist production ever made in Finland), starring Joel Rinne and Reino Valkama, and Rantasalmen sulttaani (1953), shot in Spain, Morocco, and Helsinki. The first film received poor reviews, but did well at the box office. Kirsti Ortola was cast in the role of Pekka Lipponen's servant in a blackface makeup. "Mitä
puhut sinä, siidonilainen, joka et purppuranteosta mitään ymmärrä.
Milloin ovat siidonilaiset oppineet valmistamaan purppuraa, joka olisi
halvimmankaan tyyrolaisen purppuran veroista? Te keitätte purppuranne
raa'assa merilipeässä ja savipadoissa. Jos te tuntisitte hyvä purppuran
valmistustavan, ei teidän tarvitsisi lähettää miehiänne salakavalasti
meiltä purppurantekoa oppimaan. Siidolainen purppura on kuin
kamelinsonta." (Purppurantekijä by Aarne Haapakoski, SAGA Egmont, 2021; first published by WSOY in 1951) Haapakoski's most ambitious novel, Purppurantekijä,
was set in the times
of
Darius the Great and Xerxes. The work, written in the wake of Mika
Waltari's highly popular historical novels, did not gain critical
acclaim. Hadoram, the protagonist, is the son of a Jewish merchant
who knows the secret of
manufacturing Tyrial purple, the royal color used in clothes. His
changes of fortune take him all over the ancient Mediterranean world,
commercial contacts and war stages.
Hadoram is a member of a small nation in times when Persia was the
ruling power. From this theme one can draw parallels – quite obvious –
to postwar relationship between Finland and the Soviet
Union, during
which commercial relationship started to flourish and grow. "Starttiraketin huumaava jylinä kaikui avaruuslaivan metalliseinäiseen ohjaamoon. Tulenliekkien ja räjähdyskaasujen syöksyessä pakoputkista maailman ensimmäinen rakettikäyttöinen avaruuslaiva MO-56 kiiti liukuradaltaan tuntemattomia maailmoita kohti." (Atorox kuussa by Outsider, SAGA Egmont, 2121; first published by Kansankirja, 1947) Haapakoski's other works include novels about the robot Atorox (1947-48) – landmarks in the history of the Finnish science fiction – radio plays, short stories, and travel books. Abiel tähdistälukija from the 1950s was a political allegory about Stalin's foreign policy. It was not published until 2007. Kuolema pyramidin varjossa
(1956, Death in the shadow of a pyramid), published by Nide, contains a
lively description of a trip to the Pyramids of Giza. The set-up
itself, with an assorted sort of characters and a murderer gathered
together in one place, is familiar from countless mystery novels. In
this particular case a mysterious blackmailer called "Fantomas"
collects a group of people in Cairo in a hotel named Mena-House. They
all have a shady past and some get murdered along the way. Obviously,
the pseudonym Rigor Morton was derived from Rigor mortis (postmortem
rigidity). At the end Fantomas reveals his true identity by making a
mistake. To hide his face, he pretends to be a Muslim praying but he
faces in the wrong direction, not towards Mecca. From 1949 to 1950 Haapakoski
edited the magazine Jännityspalat and between the years 1950
and 1954 the magazine Outsiderin Lehti. He wrote for Tutka and
in 1960 he started Horna series,
published by Ajanviete. For some reason, he was not interested in
Western stories. 'Caro' (1945), a rare attempt in this genre, appeared
in the magazine Salainen salkku,
edited by Eero Rislakki, the son of Ensio
Rislakki. Seppo Tuisku (1935-2020) assisted Haapakoski from 1957 to 1964
to continue with the publication of Pekka Lipposen seikkailuja
and Kalle-Kustaa Korkin seikkailuja. Haapakoski's advice to
Turkki was: "Kun yksityiskohdat pitävät kutinsa, kokonaisuuden voi
valehdella." (When the details are correct, you can lie about the
rest.) (''Outsiderin kahdet kasvot' by Tapani Bagge, in Pekka Lipponen kaukomailla by Outsider, Aviador Kustannus, 2021, p. 279) They met only once, at the Restaurant Kappeli in Helsinki. Then they maintained contact by correspondence. Politically, Tuisku was more liberal than Haapakoski but
Korkki still was a heavy smoker: "Toinen naurahti. Hän
kaivoi taskustaan savukekotelon. Miehet sytyttivät savukkeet.
Sytyttimen liekin valossa näkyi hetkisen Kalle-Kustaa Korkin miehekkäät
kasvonpiirteet." ('Kuolema näkee pimeässä,' Kalle-Kustaa Korkin seikkailuja by
Outsider, No. 38, 1/1962, p. 3) Kalle-Kustaa lights the
cigarette on the page 3 and throws it away on the page 6. Then he
smokes a pipe (p. 27), takes a cigarette break (p. 42), and wants to
light a cigarette when a gangster puts a pistol on his neck (p. 69). 'Ihmisrobotit' (Pekka Lipposen seikkailuja, No. 40, 1/1960) was originally written by Tuisku, but when the manuscript disappeared in the post, Haapakoski composed the text again from his memory. 'Pirskatti, sanoi muumio' (Kalle-Kustaa Korkin seikkailuja, No. 70, 1/1964) was edited from Haapakoski's original work. Tuisku's first Pekka Lipponen story was 'Et elä huomiseen, Pekka' (Pekka Lipposen seikkailuja, No. 29, 1/1959). With Reino Helismaa he scripted for Mainos-TV eleven Lipponen and Korkki adventures, produced in 1964 and starring Ossi Elstelä and Kullervo Kalske. – Aarne Haapakoski died in Malaga, Spain on January 24, 1961. For further reading: 'Outsiderin ja Henrik Hornan naamion takana' by A. V. Haapakoski, in Me kerromme itsestämme: kirjailijoiden yhteisjulkaisu, ed. by Ensio Rislakki (1946); Hornanlinnan perilliset: 70 vuotta suomalaista salapoliisikirjallisuutta by Timo Kukkola (1980); Kirjojen mies: Aarne Haapakoski alias Outsider 18.3.1904-24.1.1961, ed. by Raili Veikkanen (1989); Outsider-bibliografia by Simo Sjöblom (1995); Kansallisgalleria 4: Kehittyvä Suomi, ed. by Allan Tiitta (1996); Amatöörit tutkimusten hämärillä poluilla: henkilöt, miljöö ja intuitio 1940-luvun suomenkielisissä salapoliisiromaanisarjoissa by Salla Laakkonen (2006); Outsiderin kirja by Raimo Jokisalmi (2007); 'Outsider: Huuhkajalinnan kaviomarssi (1949)' & 'Ilmari Unho: Kalle-Kustaa Korkin seikkailut (1949),' in 50 suomalaista kirjaa ja elokuvaa by Juri Nummelin (2017); 'Outsiderin kahdet kasvot' by Tapani Bagge, in Pekka Lipponen kaukomailla by Outsider (2021); 'Outsider eli Aarne Haapakoski,' in Kuviteltu tulevaisuus: tieteiskirjallisuus Suomessa 1803-1944 by Jari Koponen and Vesa Sisättö (2024) Selected works:
Pekka Lipposen seikkailuja:
Kalle-Kustaa Korkin seikkailuja:
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