Arvi Kork
Arvi Kork (real name Arvi Tinits; 2 December 1927 – 1 April 1997) was an exile Estonian prose writer.
Kork was born in Peningi parish, Harjumaa County, and attended school in Tallinn. In 1944, he was conscripted to the German Air Force auxiliary service. In the turmoil of the war, he found himself in Germany where he continued his studies at the Estonian gymnasium in Lübeck, thereafter at the United Nations Relief and Rehabilitation Administration University in Munich. Later, Kork studied at Stockholm University and the Ryerson Institute of Technology in Toronto. He held various jobs, including at the Estonian Service of the Voice of America, as the managing editor of the newspaper Vaba Eestlane and as a policeman in Toronto. Kork died in Toronto where he was also buried.
Kork started publishing fiction in the late 1950s. His first novel Neli musketäri (‘Four Musketeers’, 1957), like the novels Tammiraijujad (‘Breakers of Dams’, 1966), Armud läinud, armud jäänud (‘Loves Gone, Loves Remained’, 1968) and Relvalood (‘Arms Stories’, 1971), have an autobiographical background describing the fate of the author and his generation peers in Europe and Canada after World War II. The criminal novels Tänavakuningad (‘Street Kings’, 1963), Sulid ja võmmid (‘Crooks and Cops’, 1973) and Röövlijahil (‘Hunting for Robbers’, 1976) depict the author’s work in the police. The typical features of Kork’s books are dynamic narration, lively dialogue and colourful characters.
The book of memories Välgumärgi kasvandikud (‘Fostered by the Badge of Lightning’, 1982) describes the fate of the conscripts of the German Air Force auxiliary service.
A. K. (Translated by I. A.)
Books in Estonian
Novels
Neli musketäri. Lund: Eesti Kirjanike Kooperatiiv, 1957, 320 lk [2. tr 1990]
Tänavakuningad. Lund: Eesti Kirjanike Kooperatiiv, 1963, 296 lk
Tammiraiujad. Lund: Eesti Kirjanike Kooperatiiv, 1966, 272 lk
Armud läinud, armud jäänud: elukooli kursus kolmes osas. Lund: Eesti Kirjanike Kooperatiiv, 1968, 254 lk
Relvalood: sõjasulaste seiklusi mitmel mandril. Lund: Eesti Kirjanike Kooperatiiv, 1971, 287 lk
Sulid ja võmmid: kriminaallood tõsielust. Lund: Eesti Kirjanike Kooperatiiv, 1973, 239 lk
Röövlijahil. Lund: Eesti Kirjanike Kooperatiiv, 1976, 239 lk
Memoirs
Arvi Tinits, Välgumärgi kasvandikud. Toronto: Lennuväepoiste Klubi Torontos, 1982, 560 lk
