Maret Suits-Elson

Poems

Maret Suits (Anna Liisa Margareta Suits, from 1945 Maret Elson, also Suits-Elson; 21 January 1914 – 14 July 1956) was an actress and poet.

Suits was born and attended school in Finland but completed secondary school in Tartu, entered the Faculty of Philosophy at the University of Tartu and studied acting at the studio of the Tartu Drama Theatre Society from 1934 to 1937. She worked as an actor in the Estonia theatre in Tallinn, Kuressaare theatre and the Vanemuine in Tartu. She fled to Sweden in 1944. Suits died in St Göran Hospital in Stockholm and was buried in Stockholm Forest Cemetery. Her parents were the poet Gustav Suits (1883–1956) and the philologist Aino Thauvón-Suits (1884–1969), her sister was the writer Helga Suits-Kangro.

Maret Suits’s poetry has been gathered into the collections Oled kes oled (‘You Are Who You Are’, 1951) and Tõrvalill on aniliin (‘Campion Flower is Aniline’, 1958), which was published posthumously. Her free-verse poetry is centred on the person in her searches and aspirations; an important role belongs to maritime motifs; there are also reflections from the war years.

A. K. (Translated by I. A.)

Books in Estonian

Poetry
Maret Suits-Elson, Oled kes oled. Stockholm: Noor-Eesti, 1951, 131 lk.
Maret Suits-Elson, Tõrvalill on aniliin: järelejäänud luulet ja proosat. Lund: Eesti Kirjanike Kooperatiiv, 1958, 108 lk.