Andrejs Upīts


Andrejs Upīts was a Latvian teacher, poet, short story writer and Communist polemicist.

Literary activity

Andrejs Upīts, while writing for the newspaper "Mājas viesis" under the pseudonym Andrei Araji in 1892, published his first articles, Parunas, Skrīveros uzrakstītas and Kā mūsu senči agrāk Vidzemē dzīvojuši . Upīts wrote novels, stories, drama, tragedy, comedy, poetry, satire, journalism, and literary criticism. His children's novel, Sūnu ciema zēni, is included in the compulsory reading list of schools. He was one of the more multifaceted Latvian writers. Upīts' heroes possess striking character and he used a rich language.
His 1945 novel Zaļā zeme received the USSR State Prize in 1946. His Sociālistiskā reālisma jautājumi literatūrā won the Latvian SSR State Prize in 1957.
His works were banned twice: the first time after Kārlis Ulmanis' coup of 1934, and the second during the years of the Soviet regime, when his performance of his play, Ziedošais tuksnesis was prohibited at the Dailes Theatre and censors prohibited distribution of his book, Literatūras vēsture.

Significant works

Novels