Eeva Niinivaara
Eeva Niinivaara (née Eeva Pedriks, pseudonym Eeva Pälluri, 20. XII 1901 – 29. X 2000) was a linguist, literary scholar and poet.
She was born in the village of Siimusti in Jõgeva parish in Tartu county. She got her secondary education at the Estonian Youth Education Society’s Girls’ Gymnasium in Tartu from 1911 to 1919. From 1919 she studied art history, Estonian language and philosophy at the University of Tartu, graduating in 1939. From 1928 to 1930 Niinivaara worked at the Võru Teachers’ Seminary as a teacher of Estonian language and literature, also giving Finnish lessons. In 1930 she married the linguist Martti Niinivaara and moved to Helsinki. She took on the job of handicraft teacher at the Heinola seminary in Finland. Alongside her work she continued her studies at the University of Helsinki. In 1947 she was awarded her degree of Master of Philosophy for her study ‘Estonian folk costume and its terminology’. From 1945 to 1971 she was the lecturer in Estonian language and literature at the University of Helsinki.
Niinivaara began her literary career as a 20-year-old with poetry. Nearly sixty years later her collection of poems in Estonian and Finnish, Unarsõnad ('Forgotten Words', 1979) appeared in Helsinki.
Her literary studies were published by the journals Looming, Tulimuld and Virittäjä. Her essays and reviews appeared not only in Estonian journals but also in the most important Finnish papers, Helsingin Sanomat and Uusi Suomi. The book Kasvumaa (Cultivated Soil, 1981) is a selection of those writings.
Niinivaara’s book of memoirs, Ikka paistab seesama päike ('The Same Sun Keeps Shining', 1988, 1994) has appeared in Finnish and Estonian.
L. P. (Translated by C. M.)
Books in Estonian
Memoirs
Ikka paistab seesama päike. Elu mu noorusaja Eestis ja Soomes. Soome keelest tõlkinud Mare Ollisaar, Martin Ollisaar; järelsõna: A. Salokannel. Tallinn: Eesti Entsüklopeediakirjastus, 1994, 190 lk.