Autumn 2013

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Union
serving was the prose writer August Mälk
(1945–1982), who was followed by the poet
Kalju Lepik (1982–1999). After his death, the
prose writer Enn Nõu, acting as chairman,
successfully united the Estonian Writers’ Union
Abroad with the Writers’ Union at home.
To mark the 90 th anniversary of the Estonian
Writers’ Union, Valev Uibopuu’s monograph
The Estonian Writers’ Union Abroad was
published. The book contains abundant photographic
material, a list of members with dates
of joining the Union, compiled by Sirje Olesk,
and a chronology of important events. There
is also an overview of the last two decades of
the Union, as Uibopuu’s text was written in
1991. The book is also a kind of continuation
of Katrin Raid’s book Loomise lugu (The Story
of Creation, 2002) about the early years of the
Union, issued on the occasion of its 80th
anniversary.
Uibopuu’s book offers the reader a sensible
and balanced overview of the Union’s members
and activities in Sweden. The most
fascinating parts are probably those describing
the foundation of the Union and relations with
the Swedish writers’ organisation. Publishing
this kind of book is a wonderful opportunity to
present the members of the Union, through a
chapter of history about them.
People are the key ingredients of all organisations.
On 19 October, one hundred years
will have passed since the birth of Valev Uibopuu
(1913–1997). Uibopuu once wrote that he
was inspired to write the history of the Writers’
Union Abroad by the fact that he discovered
he was the only surviving founding member of
the Union. It should therefore be emphasised
that the book presents the recollections and
observations of someone who witnessed the
activities of the Union from the inside. We
should also add that most of the minutes of
the Union’s meetings were recorded by Uibopuu.
The archive is located at the Estonian Literary
Museum in Tartu.
Now a bit more about the man himself.
Valev Uibopuu was a remarkably purposeful,
diverse and hard-working man. While still in
Estonia he worked in journalism and published
his first literary work. His incentive to become
a writer perhaps partly came from the fact that
in his younger years he had for some time
acted as private secretary to his uncle, the
writer Richard Roht. In 1943 he became a refugee,
first in Finland, and then in Stockholm.
From the mid-1950s on, Uibopuu lived in Lund,
where, on the initiative of Bernard Kangro, the
biggest exile Estonian publishing house, Eesti
Kirjanike Kooperatiiv (Estonian Writers’ Cooperative),
was founded. Uibopuu saw to the administrative
side of the publishing house, while
still managing to work a day job and write
novels and short stories. More of Uibopuu’s
works have been translated into Finnish and
Swedish than those of any other exile writer.
The tough character of Uibopuu is evident
in the way he overcame adversity. A leg injury