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Jaan Kross

ヤーン・クロス

Yān Kurosu

Profile

Gender
Male
Born
1920-02-19 （Tallinn）
Died
2007-12-27 （Tallinn） age 87
Nationality
Estonian
Languages
Estonian, German, Russian, Swedish, French, English
Religion
Unknown
Residence History
Tallinn, Estonia

Career

Occupations
novelist, poet, playwright, translator, lawyer, university lecturer
Active Years
1940-2007
Affiliations
University of Tartu
Memberships
Riigikogu
Influenced
Many Estonian writers

Education

Jakob Westholm Gymnasium
high school
Period: ~1938
Year of Graduation: 1938
Country: Estonia
high school
University of Tartu
School of Law
Degree: 法学学位
Period: 1938-1945
Year of Graduation: 1945
Country: Estonia
Lecturer until 1946, professor of Artes Liberales in 1998

Awards

State Prize of the Estonian SSR
1977
Category: 文学
Organization: Estonian SSR
Result: 受賞
People's Writer of the Estonian SSR
1985
Category: 名誉称号
Organization: Estonian SSR
Result: 受賞
Amnesty International Golden Flame Prize
1990
Organization: Amnesty International
Result: 受賞
International Nonino Prize
1995
Organization: Nonino
Result: 受賞
Baltic Assembly Prize for Literature
1999
Category: 文学
Organization: Baltic Assembly
Result: 受賞
Herder Prize
1997
Organization: Herder Foundation
Result: 受賞

Awards & Nominations

Works

Major Works

Between Three Plagues

1970 historical novel 1240 pages

Tetralogy set in 16th-century Livonia during the Livonian War, following chronicler Balthasar Russow's life amid plagues and power struggles.

Estonian historyLivonian Warplagueidentity
Translations
  • Finnish, Danish, Dutch, German, Latvian, Russian, English

Bibliography

  • Between Three Plagues (1970–1976)
  • Under Clio's Gaze (1972)
  • The Third Range of Hills (1974)
  • The Czar's Madman (1978)
  • A Rakvere Novel (1982)
  • Professor Martens' Departure (1984)
  • Sailing Against the Wind (1987)
  • The Wikman Boys (1988)
  • The Conspiracy and Other Stories (1988)
  • Excavations (1990)
  • Elusiveness (1993)
  • Mesmer's Circle (1995)
  • Treading Air (1998)
  • Tahtamaa (2001)

Translations by Author

  • Balzac, Brecht, Goncharov et al.

Translations of Works

  • Finnish, Swedish, Russian, German, Latvian, English et al.

Style & Themes

Literary Style
revitalization of historical noveluse of internal monologuemetaphorical comparisons between historical and contemporary eras
Recurring Motifs
mixed identitiesloyalty and belongingEstonian-Baltic German-Russian relations

Health

  • Gulag imprisonment
    1946-1954
    8 years in Siberian labor camps influenced his metaphorical literature under Soviet occupation

Legacy

Most translated and internationally acclaimed Estonian writer, praised as preserver of Estonian language and culture.

In Popular Culture

  • Google Doodle for 100th birthday on February 19, 2020

Quotes

  • He was one of those who kept fresh the spirits of the people and made us ready to take the opportunity of restoring Estonia's independence.
    Source: President Toomas Hendrik Ilves (2007)

Trivia

  • Reportedly nominated several times for the Nobel Prize in Literature in the early 1990s