Jonas Aistis
Jonas Aistis, born on July 7, 1904, in Kampiskes, Lithuania, was a significant Lithuanian poet and scholar known for his unique literary contributions. He grew up in a family that valued literature, which nurtured his love for reading and storytelling. Aistis studied at the University of Kaunas and later earned a Ph.D. from the University of Grenoble, focusing on biblical translations. After immigrating to the United States in 1946, he taught French and Lithuanian at Marianapolis College and worked for the Voice of America, where his poetry began to reflect his patriotic sentiments regarding Lithuania's loss of independence to the Soviet Union. His early work, particularly the 1932 collection "Eilerasciai," is noted for blending traditional Lithuanian folk elements with a distinct personal voice, addressing themes of sorrow and cultural identity. Aistis's later writings expressed his grief over exile and a critical view of his homeland's political struggles. He served at the Library of Congress from 1958 until his death in 1973, leaving behind a legacy that expanded Lithuanian poetry's reach beyond national borders into the wider European literary landscape.
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Jonas Aistis
Poet
- Born: July 7, 1904
- Birthplace: Kampiskes, Lithuania
- Died: June 13, 1973
- Place of death: Hillcrest Heights, Maryland
Biography
Jonas Aistis was born Jonas Aleksandravičius on July 7, 1904, in Kampiskes, Lithuania. His father, a blacksmith, was an avid reader and a lover of traditional stories, thus providing his son with an environment which encouraged bookishness. Aistis attended the University of Kaunas in Lithuania, and in 1944 he earned a Ph.D. from the University of Grenoble in France. His doctoral dissertation examined translations of the Bible into Provençal. From 1944 until 1946, Aistis was an archivist at a library in Nice, France, and then at the Paris National Library. He immigrated to the United States in 1946.
Aistis’s first collection of poems, Eilerasciai, was published in 1932. These poems established his reputation as an individual voice, separate from Lithuanian poetic tradition, while at the same time drawing on traditional elements of Lithuanian folk culture. Aistis transformed those elements to create his own voice, one which shifted his private sadness into poetry. Eilerasciai also contained essays about other Lithuanian writers. Aistis continued to publish poetry between the world wars, but his productivity fell off after his arrival in the United States.
Between 1946 and 1952, Aistis taught French and Lithuanian at Marianapolis College in Thompson, Connecticut. He then worked in the Lithuanian section of the Free Europe Committee of the Voice of America until 1968. During this period, Aistis’s poetry became increasingly patriotic, reflecting his sorrow about his homeland’s loss of independence to the Soviet Union. In some of his work from this period, he seems to blame Lithuania for her failure to stand against oppression, while at the same time he urges Lithuanians to continue to press for freedom. Aistis published two collections of essays, including some literary memoirs from his past, as well as attempts, considered unsuccessful by some, to explicate his own poems. His last essays, written in the United States, articulate his grief at his life in exile and reproach his countrymen for their subservience to Soviet repression.
From 1958 until 1973, Aistis served on the staff of the Library of Congress in Washington, D. C. He died in Hillcrest Heights, Maryland, in 1973. His literary legacy is represented by his poems, which mark a new direction for Lithuanian poetry, moving it beyond national boundaries and into the broader world of European literature.