Kalju Lepik
Kalju Lepik ( born October 7, 1920 in Koeru; † 30 May 1999 Tallinn ) was a exilestnischer lyricist.
Biography
Kalju Lepik first attended from 1928 to 1934 the primary school in Koeru, from 1935 to 1939, the trade school in Tartu and from 1939 to 1941, the Commerce High School in Tartu, where he graduated. 1942/43, he studied at the Philosophical Faculty of the University of Tartu Nordic history and archeology. In 1943 he was drafted into the Waffen-SS. 1944 Lepik fled before the Soviet occupation of Estonia to Sweden. A short time he studied archeology and ethnography at the University of Stockholm.
Poet and publicist
Kalju Lepik 1939 published his first poems in the Tartu student magazines Iloli and Tuleviku Rajad. In 1940 he founded the artists' association Tuulisui which further remained active since 1945 in Sweden exile.
Kalju Lepik was strongly committed to the Estonian refugees in Sweden. In 1946 he founded in Stockholm exilestnischen Publisher Eesti Raamat. In 1966 he became head of the Baltic Archives in Sweden. From 1982 he was chairman of exilestnischen Writers' Association ( Eesti Välismaine Kirjanike Liit ). 1990 and 1998 received Kalju Lepik the prestigious Juhan - Liiv Poetry Prize in 1998 and the annual prize of Estonian literature.
Poetry
The early poems of Kalju Lepik are strongly patriotic. In addition there are a lot of satire and humor. In the later poetry outweigh pessimistic elements. Especially in the last years of life Kalju Lepik turned more and more from any kind of political power and exuberant national pathos.
Most important collections of poetry
- " Nägu koduaknas " ( Stockholm 1946)
- " Mängumees " ( Stockholm 1948)
- " Kerjused treppidel " ( Vadstena 1949)
- " Merepõhi " ( Stockholm 1951)
- " Muinasjutt Tiigrimaast " (Lund 1955)
- " Kivimurd " (Lund 1958)
- " Kollased nõmmed " (Lund, 1965)
- " Marmorpagulane " (Lund 1968)
- " Verepõld " (Lund, 1973)
- " Klaasist mehed " (Lund, 1978)
- " Kadunud külad " (Lund 1985)
- " Öötüdruk " (Tallinn 1992)
- " Pihlakamarja rist " (Tartu 1997)
Private life
Kalju Lepik was married to Asta Lepik. He is the father of the Estonian politician and diplomat Aino Lepik of Wirén (* 1961).