Occupation Poet, Writer Name Andrejs Upits Books Zelts, Sieviete | Nationality Latvian Role Poet | |
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Born 4 December 1877
Skriveri parish, Russian Empire
(now Latvia) ( 1877-12-04 ) Died November 17, 1970, Riga, Latvia | ||
ImKa oratorija "Rīta cēliens" 4.daļa
Andrejs Upits (4 December 1877, Skriveri parish, Russian Empire – 17 November 1970, Riga, Latvian SSR) was a Latvian teacher, poet, short story writer and Communist polemicist.
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Literary activity
Andrejs Upits, while writing for the newspaper "Majas viesis" under the pseudonym Andrei Araji in 1892, published his first articles, Parunas, Skriveros uzrakstitas (Recorded Proverbs of Skriveri) (No. 15) and Ka musu senci agrak Vidzeme dzivojusi (How Our Ancestors Once Lived in Vidzeme) (No. 20). Upits wrote novels, stories, drama, tragedy, comedy, poetry, satire, journalism, and literary criticism. His children's novel, Sunu ciema zeni (The Boys of Moss Village), is included in the compulsory reading list of schools. He was one of the more multifaceted Latvian writers. Upits' heroes possess striking character and he used a rich language.
His 1945 novel Zala zeme (The Green Land) received the USSR State Prize in 1946. His Socialistiska realisma jautajumi literatura (Problems of Socialist Realism in Literature) won the Latvian SSR State Prize in 1957.
His works were banned twice: the first time after Karlis Ulmanis' coup of 1934, and the second during the years of the Soviet regime, when his performance of his play, Ziedosais tuksnesis (The Blooming Desert) was prohibited at the Dailes Theatre and censors prohibited distribution of his book, Literaturas vesture (The History of Literature).