Eino Leino

Early life

Eino Leino was born as Armas Einar Leopold Lonnbohm in Paltamo and was the seventh and youngest son in a family of ten children. Leino's father had transferred his surname from Mustonen to Lonnbohm to advance in his career. Eino Leino was the youngest of his seven sons. His brother older Kasimir Leino was an important cultural figure in Finland. He was poet, critic and theatre director. Eino and Kasimir Leino founded a literature journal together 1898.

Leino published his first poem at 12 and, by age 18, a collection of poems as well, Maaliskuun lauluja.

Leino's parents died while he was still in school. He started his school in Kajaani and continued in Oulu and Hameenlinna where he was boarding with relatives. In 1865 Leino graduated from Hameenlinna Grammar School and started in University in Helsinki.

Writing career

Early in his career Eino Leino was much loved and praised by the critics. He joined literary and newspaper circles and became a member of the Young Finnish circle. Among Leino's friends were the artist Pekka Halonen and Otto Manninen, who gained fame as a poet and translator.

After the Finnish Civil War, Leino's idealistic faith for national unity collapsed, and his influence as a journalist and polemicist weakened. He was granted a State writer's pension in 1918 at the age of forty. Although publishing prolifically, he had financial problems and his health deteriorated. "Life is always a struggle with eternal forces," Leino said in a letter in 1925 to his friend Bertel Gripenberg.

Leino published over 70 books of poems and stories. The most famous of these are the two poem collections Helkavirsia (1903 and 1916), in which he extensively uses Finnish mythology and folklore.

In addition to writing poetry, Eino Leino wrote in newspapers about theatre and culture in general, and translated works of important writers such as Runeberg and Goethe. He was the first person in Finland to translate Dante's Divine Comedy into Finnish.

Leino was married three times and had one daughter, Helka. He died in 1926 at the age of 47.

The most detailed biography of Leino was written in 1930s by his lover and colleague L. Onerva. In the dramatic story Onerva is also writing about her own life.