Elīna Zālīte

Elīna Zālīte (1898–1955) was a poet, playwright, writer and translator. She was born into a family of artisans. As she was frequently ill in her childhood, she did not complete secondary school, though she later worked as a teacher in Alūksne. It was her bad health which first motivated her to start writing. Zālīte’s literary career began in her twenties, when she was working on translations from Estonian and Finnish, and it culminated with her Latvian translation of the Estonian epic “Kalevipoeg”. Later she also translated from Russian, French, German, and Swedish. Zālīte made her literary debut with poetry, though there was a long gap between her first publications and her debut poetry collection Sila ziedi (Pine Forest Blossoms) in 1931. This collection was immensely popular in the 1930s, which allowed her to devote more of her time to writing. In the 1920s and 1930s, Zālīte wrote several plays and worked as a playwright at the Daile Theatre. Her only novel, Agrā rūsa (Early Rust), was written during the Second World War. In 1979, it was adapted for the cinema and became one of the most watched films in the Soviet Union. After the Second World War, Zālīte was forced to align her work with the Socialist realist canon and consequently several of her works – including Agrā rūsa – were changed.

Poetry
Sila ziedi [Pine Forest Blossoms] (1931) 

Plays
Vissvarīgākais [The Most Important] (1953)
Spēka avots [Source of Force] (1951)
Vārds sievietēm [Word to Women] (1950)
Atgūtā dzimtene [Recovered Homeland] (1948)
Rudens rozes [Autumn Roses] (1939)
Mūžīgi vīrišķais [Eternally Masculine] (1938)
Vecais pilskungs [The Old Lord of the Manor] (1936)
Svešas asinis [Foreign Blood] (1935)
Karogs aicina [The Flag Invites] (1934)
Pirktā laime [Bought Happiness] (1933)
Maldu Mildas sapņojums [Illusion Milda Reverie] (1931)
Bīstamais vecums [Dangerous Age] (1927)

Prose
Agrā rūsa [Early Rust] (1944)
Sūrais malks [Bitter Gulp] (1943)

Children's literature
Emīls [Emil] (1953)
Birztaliņā sēņojot [Picking Mushrooms in the Birch Grove] (1953)
Pēterītis miera sardzē [Peter Guarding Peace] (1951)

Miscellaneous
Saules zeme Ēģipte agrāk un tagad [Sun Land Egypt Then and Now] (1937)

Raimonds Briedis, Teksta cenzūras īsais kurss, about censorship of Early Rust and other novels // Online magazine Satori, 2010 [LV]

About Elīna Zālīte // LA.lv, 2018 [LV]

About the film adaptation of Early Rust // Diena.lv, 2009 [LV]

1954, Latvian Soviet Socialist Republic Award for Culture