Aspazija

(pseudonym of El’za Rozenberg). Born Mar. 4 (16), 1868, in the village of Dauknas, Zaleniek Volost (small rural district); died Nov. 5, 1943, in Dubulti. Latvian poet and playwright.

In her verse collection Red Flowers (1897), Aspazija expressed democratic ideas. After the defeat of the so-called New Movement, her works became marked by pessimism (Twilight of the Soul, 1901). During the period of the 1905 Revolution, the themes of social struggle appear again in her works (the play Silver Cover, 1905). At the end of 1905, Aspazija, together with her husband, J. Rainis, emigrated to Switzerland; they returned to Latvia in 1920. In emigration, Aspazija moved away from social themes, as seen in such collections as A Sunny Corner (1910) and An Armful of Flowers (1911).