Alunans, Juris

Alunāns, Juris Andreevich 

Born May 1 (13), 1832; died Apr. 6 (18), 1864. Latvian poet and public figure, founder of Latvian national written poetry.

From 1856 to 1861, Alunáns studied at Tartu University and at the St. Petersburg Forestry Academy. In 1856 he published the collection Songs. He compiled a collection of popular scientific articles entitled The Farm, Nature, and the Universe (vols. 1–3, 1859–60). From 1862 he was the editor of the progressive Latvian newspaper Pēterburgas Avīzes. His work was directed against the remnants of serfdom and clericalism. Alunāns contributed greatly to the development of the Latvian literary language. He translated the works of Horace, A. S. Pushkin, M. Iu. Lermontov, W. Goethe, F. Schiller, H. Heine, and others.

WORKS

Raksti, vols. 1–2. St. Petersburg, 1914.
Kopoti raksti, vols. 1–3. Riga, 1929–33.
Izlase. [Foreword by V. Austrums.] Riga, 1956.

REFERENCE

Latviesu literaturas vēsture, vol. 2. Riga, 1963.