Volter Adalbert Kilpi

(pseudonym of V. A. Ericsson). Born Dec. 12,1874, in the small town of Kustavi; died June 13, 1939, in Turku. Finnish writer. Son of a sea captain.

Complexity of language and style are characteristic of Kilpi’s early neoromantic “narrative poems in prose” on biblical and ancient Greek mythological subjects, such as Bathseba (1900), Parsifal (1902), and Antinous (1903). During World War I (1914–18) he opposed political reaction in the collection of essays Before the Future (1918) and other works. In the novel In the Parlor at Alastalo (1933) he idealized the patriarchal way of life of kulak farm owners. Kilpi is the author of collections of short stories written in the manner of M. Proust, such as The Humble Folk of the Parish (1934) and Toward the Church (1937), and the satirical novel Gulliver’s Journey Around the Fantomimian Continent (published in 1944).