Portal:Literature/Biography archive/2007, Week 5

Anton Hansen Tammsaare (30 January 1878 - 1 March 1940), born Anton Hansen, was an Estonian writer whose quintology Tõde ja õigus (Truth and Justice; 1926–1933) is considered one of the major works of Estonian literature and "The Estonian Novel".

In 1918, when Estonia become independent, Tammsaare had moved to Tallinn. It was here that Tammsaare wrote the works which have gained him a permanent place in Estonian literature. Although Tammsaare took his subjects from the history and life of the Estonian people, his novels have deep connections with the ideas of Bergson, Jung and Freud, and such writers as Knut Hamsun and André Gide.

Tammsaare's early works are characterized by rural "poetic" realism. Some of his stories also reflect the atmosphere of the revolutionary year of 1905. During what is sometimes classified as his second period, from 1908 to 1919, he wrote several short urban novels and collections of miniatures. In "Poiss ja liblik" (1915, The Boy and the Butterfly), Tammsaare shows the influence of Oscar Wilde. Internationally best known is his last novel, Devil with a False Passport.