{"id":854,"date":"2024-04-03T23:40:25","date_gmt":"2024-04-03T20:40:25","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/sisu.ut.ee\/ewod\/kurvits\/"},"modified":"2024-04-04T00:08:55","modified_gmt":"2024-04-03T21:08:55","slug":"kurvits","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"https:\/\/sisu.ut.ee\/ewod\/k\/kurvits\/","title":{"rendered":"Lembit Kurvits"},"content":{"rendered":"

\n\tNon-fiction<\/a><\/strong>\u00a0\"Lembit<\/a><\/span><\/span>\n<\/p>\n

\n\tAbout Lembit Kurvits<\/span><\/strong><\/a><\/span>\n<\/p>\n

Lembit Kurvits (15. V 1954 \u2013 20. II 2017) was an Estonian poet.<\/span>\n<\/p>\n

\n\tKurvits was born at Mammaste, near P\u00f5lva, into a family on a collective farm. He attended Mammaste primary school and P\u00f5lva secondary school. From the age of 13 he and his two brothers were put into P\u00e4rnu children\u2019s home, where he stayed until his sixteenth year and attended primary school number 5 in P\u00e4rnu. From 1975 to 1978 he attended P\u00f5lva secondary school through distance learning and from 1978 to 1979 the Tallinn Pedagogical Institute. From 1970 he worked in many different jobs, among others as a builder, electrician, librarian, teacher in a vocational school, junior researcher at the Tartu Ethnographic Museum, proof-reader for the publishing house of the Estonian Agricultural Academy, and as a freelance writer. From his three marriages Kurvits had three children; his last marriage was dissolved in 1992. In the early nineteen-nineties his schizophrenia worsened, aggravated by alcohol consumption. Disorderly behaviour arising from his bouts of illness resulted in his incarceration in Patarei prison from autumn 1996 to summer 1997. After this Kurvits was active mainly in Tartu, where he spent some time in a psychiatric hospital, and was sometimes homeless. From the beginning of the millennium he was supported by the city of Tartu and the Writers\u2019 Union. For the last decade of his life Kurvits was mostly in various Estonian nursing homes. He died at Keila nursing home, and is buried in the Metsakalmistu cemetery in Tallinn.<\/span>\n<\/p>\n

\n\tKurvits began writing poetry while still in the P\u00e4rnu children\u2019s home. From the very beginning, Kurvits\u2019 favourite theme was the scenery of his childhood and longing for care and love. To some extent Kurvits wrote in his own home dialect. Critics have tended to single out the verses he produced in the nineteen-eighties, which appeared in the poet\u2019s first collections: V\u00e4ike-Kamari \u00f5htud<\/em> (\u2018Evenings in V\u00e4ike-Kamari\u2019, 1981), T\u00fchermaa<\/em> (\u2018The Wasteland\u2019, 1986), Armastuseta<\/em> (\u2018Without Love\u2019, 1990) and Meie \u00fchine vend armastus<\/em> (\u2018Our Common Brother, Love\u2019, 1991). In the autobiographical short-story collection Vanad soome saapad. Jutte ja novelle 1976-1993<\/em> (\u2018Old Finnish Boots: Tales and Stories 1976-1993\u2019, 1997), a certain humorous fantasy element is noticeable. The collection Kaksk\u00fcmmend viis luuletust<\/em> (\u2018Twenty-five Poems\u2019, 2001) aroused a lot of attention for the one piece of prose in the book, a confessional memoir with the title 1993-2000<\/em>, in which Kurvits recalls his time in prison and hospital, and his struggle with illness and homelessness. Kurvits\u2019 last book, one that was well received by the critics, was the compilation T\u00f5rvalill<\/em> (\u2018The Catchfly\u2019, 2003). His poems have appeared in several anthologies, such as K\u00f5ik muutub lauluks. Luule ja luuletaja eesti luules<\/em> (\u2018Everything Turns into Song. Poetry and the Poet in Estonian Poetry\u2019, 2005), Lumi see me \u00fchine<\/em> (\u2018The Snow we Have in Common\u2019, 2010), and Viinakuu. Alkohol eesti luules<\/em> (\u2018Spirit Moon: Alcohol in Estonian Poetry\u2019, 2010). Some of Kurvits\u2019 poems and prose pieces which appeared latterly in periodicals have not appeared in book form. According to the author, many manuscripts were also lost.<\/span>\n<\/p>\n

\n\tKurvits published a children\u2019s book depicting the life and scenery of his home district, Taevaskojalapsed<\/em> (\u2018Children of Taevaskoja\u2019, 1993). Kurvits was also somewhat active as a critic. A film has been made about him, Kurvits Lootuse t\u00e4navalt<\/em> (\u2018Kurvits from Hope Street\u2019, 2014, directed by Vahur Laiapea).<\/span>\n<\/p>\n

\n\tS. V. (Translated by C. M.)<\/em><\/span><\/p>\n

Books in Estonian<\/span><\/strong><\/span>\n<\/p>\n

\n\tPoems<\/span><\/em><\/strong>
V\u00e4ike-Kamari \u00f5htud<\/strong>. Tallinn: Eesti Raamat, 1981, 78 lk.<\/span>
T\u00fchermaa<\/strong>. Tallinn: Eesti Raamat, 1986, 86 lk.<\/span>
Armastuseta<\/strong>. Tallinn: Eesti Raamat, 1990, 62 lk.<\/span>
Meie \u00fchine vend armastus<\/strong>. Illustreerinud Ilmar Kruusam\u00e4e. Tartu: Koda, 1991, 78 lk.<\/span>
Matle laul<\/strong>. P\u00fchendatud t\u00fctrele. Illustreerinud Ilmar Kruusam\u00e4e. Tartu: Elmatar, 1994, 77 lk.<\/span>
Kaksk\u00fcmmend viis luuletust<\/strong>. J\u00e4rels\u00f5na: Priidu Beier. Tallinn, Huma 2001, 62 lk. [Sisaldab ka meenutuse \u20181993\u20132000\u2019.]<\/span>
T\u00f5rvalill<\/strong>. Luulet ja m\u00f5tteid. Tallinn: Eesti Raamat, 2003, 215 lk.<\/span>\n<\/p>\n

\n\tStories<\/span><\/em><\/strong>
Taevaskojalapsed<\/strong>. Pildid joonistas \u00dclle Meister. Tallinn: Tiritamm, 1993, 31 lk. [Children\u2019s book.]<\/span>
Vanad soome saapad<\/strong>. Jutte ja novelle 1976\u20131993. Tartu, Elmatar 1997, 79 lk.<\/span>
Kaksk\u00fcmmend viis luuletust<\/strong>. J\u00e4rels\u00f5na: Priidu Beier. Tallinn, Huma 2001, 62 lk. [Sisaldab ka meenutuse \u20181993\u20132000\u2019.]<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Non-fiction\u00a0 About Lembit Kurvits Lembit Kurvits (15. V 1954 \u2013 20. II 2017) was an Estonian poet. Kurvits was born at Mammaste, near P\u00f5lva, into a family on a collective farm. He attended Mammaste primary school and P\u00f5lva secondary school. …<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":43,"featured_media":0,"parent":498,"menu_order":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"inline_featured_image":false,"footnotes":""},"class_list":["post-854","page","type-page","status-publish","hentry"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/sisu.ut.ee\/ewod\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/854","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/sisu.ut.ee\/ewod\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/sisu.ut.ee\/ewod\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/page"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sisu.ut.ee\/ewod\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/43"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sisu.ut.ee\/ewod\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=854"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/sisu.ut.ee\/ewod\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/854\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":4228,"href":"https:\/\/sisu.ut.ee\/ewod\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/854\/revisions\/4228"}],"up":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sisu.ut.ee\/ewod\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/498"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/sisu.ut.ee\/ewod\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=854"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}