Mika Waltari - encyclopedia article about Mika Waltari.

Mika Toimi Waltari ( (help)) (September 19, 1908 – August 26, 1979) was a Finnish historical novelist, best known for his magnum opus The Egyptian (Sinuhe egyptiläinen in Finnish) .

Early life

Waltari was born in Helsinki and lost his father, a Lutheran pastor, at the age of five. As a boy, he witnessed the Finnish Civil War in Helsinki. Later he enrolled in the University of Helsinki as a theology student, according to his mother's wishes, but soon abandoned theology in favour of philosophy, aesthetics and literature, graduating in 1929. While studying, he contributed to various magazines and wrote poetry and stories, getting his first book published in 1925. In 1927 he went to Paris where he wrote his first major novel Suuri illusioni ('The Grand Illusion'), a story of bohemian life. In terms of style, the novel is considered to be the Finnish equivalent to the works of the American writers of the Lost Generation. (In Waltari's historical novel The Adventurer, taking place in the 16th century, the hero is a Finn who goes to Paris during his twenties and lives there a rather bohemian life.) Waltari also was, for a while, a member of the liberal literary movement Tulenkantajat, though his political and social views later turned ultra-conservative. He was married in 1931 and had a daughter, Satu, who also became a writer.

Throughout the 1930s and 1940s, Waltari worked hectically as a journalist and critic, writing for a number of newspapers and magazines and travelling widely in Europe. He directed the magazine Suomen Kuvalehti. At the same time, he kept writing books in many genres, moving easily from one literary field to another. He had a very busy schedule and strict work ethic. It has been claimed that he also suffered from insomnia and depression, sometimes to the extent of needing hospital treatment. He participated, and often succeeded, in literary competitions to prove the quality of his work to critics. One of these competitions gave rise to one of his most popular characters, Inspector Palmu, a gruff detective of the Helsinki police department, who starred in three mystery novels, all of which were filmed (a fourth one was made without Waltari involved). Waltari also scripted the popular cartoon Kieku ja Kaiku and wrote Aiotko kirjailijaksi, a guidebook for aspiring writers that influenced many younger writers such as Kalle Päätalo.

World War II and international break-through

During the Winter War (1939–1940) and the Continuation War (1941–1944), Waltari worked in the government information center, now also placing his literary skills at the service of political propaganda. 1945 saw the publication of Waltari's first and most successful historical novel, The Egyptian. Its theme of the corruption of humanist values in a materialist world seemed curiously topical in the aftermath of World War II, and the book became an international bestseller, serving as the basis of the 1954 Hollywood movie of the same name. Waltari wrote seven more historical novels, placed in various ancient cultures, among which The Dark Angel, set during the Fall of Constantinople in 1453 is probably the best. In these novels, he gave powerful expression to his fundamental pessimism and also, in two novels set in the Roman Empire, to his Christian conviction. After the war, he also wrote several novellas, showing particular mastery in this genre. He became a member of the Finnish Academy in 1957 and received an honorary doctorate at the University of Turku in 1970.

Waltari was one of the most prolific Finnish writers. He wrote at least 29 novels, 15 novellas, 6 collections of stories or fairy-tales, 6 collections of poetry and 26 plays, as well as screenplays, radioplays, non-fiction, translations, and hundreds of reviews and articles. He is also the internationally best-known Finnish writer, and his works have been translated into more than 40 languages.

Works translated into English

Novels

A Stranger Came to the Farm (Vieras mies tuli taloon, 1937)
The Egyptian (Sinuhe egyptiläinen, 1945, abridged translation)
The Adventurer (Mikael Karvajalka, 1948)
A Nail Merchant Nightfall (Neljä päivänlaskua, 1949)
The Wanderer (Mikael Hakim, 1949)
The Dark Angel (Johannes Angelos, 1952)
The Etruscan (Turms kuolematon, 1955)
The Secret of the Kingdom (Valtakunnan salaisuus, 1959)
The Roman (Ihmiskunnan viholliset, 1964)

Novellas

Moonscape (Kuun maisema, 1953)
The Tree of Dreams (Koiranheisipuu, 1961)

External links

September 19 is the 1st day of the year (2nd in leap years) in the Gregorian calendar. There are 0 days remaining.

Events

335 - Dalmatius is raised to the rank of Caesar by his uncle Constantine I.

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19th century - 20th century - 21st century
1870s 1880s 1890s - 1900s - 1910s 1920s 1930s
1905 1906 1907 - 1908 - 1909 1910 1911

Year 1908 (MCMVIII
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August 26 is the 1st day of the year (2nd in leap years) in the Gregorian calendar. There are 0 days remaining.

Events

55 BC - Julius Caesar invades Britain.

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19th century - 20th century - 21st century
1940s 1950s 1960s - 1970s - 1980s 1990s 2000s
1976 1977 1978 - 1979 - 1980 1981 1982

Also: 1979 by Smashing Pumpkins.

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Anthem
Maamme (Finnish)
Vårt land (Swedish)
Our Land
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A historical novel a novel in which the story is set among historical events, or more generally, in which the time of the action predates the lifetime of the author. As such, the historical novel is distinguished from the alternate-history genre.
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Magnum Opus
(1995) Inspiration
(1996)

Magnum Opus is an album released in 1995 by Yngwie J. Malmsteen.

Track listing

"Vengeance" – 4:49 (words: Michael Vescera, Malmsteen)

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The Egyptian

Finnish hardcover edition
Author Mika Waltari
Original title Sinuhe Egyptiläinen
Cover artist Björn Landström
Country Finland
Language Finnish
Genre(s) Historical novel
Publisher
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City of Helsinki
Helsingin kaupunki - Helsingfors stad

Coat of arms
Location of Helsinki in Northern Europe
Coordinates:
Country Finland
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Lutheranism is a major branch of Protestant Christianity that identifies with the teachings of the sixteenth-century German reformer Martin Luther. Luther's efforts to reform the theology and practice of the Church launched the Protestant Reformation and, though it was not
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Finnish Civil War was a part of the national and social turmoil caused by World War I (1914–1918) in Europe. The war was fought in Finland from January 27 to May 15 1918, between the forces of the Social Democrats led by the People's Deputation of Finland, commonly called
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University of Helsinki (Finnish: Helsingin yliopisto, Swedish: Helsingfors universitet) is a university located in Helsinki, Finland.
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God

General approaches
Agnosticism Atheism
Deism Dystheism
Henotheism Ignosticism
Monism Monotheism
Natural theology Nontheism
Pandeism Panentheism
Pantheism Polytheism
Theism Theology
Transtheism

Specific conceptions
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Philosophy is the discipline concerned with questions of how one should live (ethics); what sorts of things exist and what are their essential natures (metaphysics); what counts as genuine knowledge (epistemology); and what are the correct principles of reasoning (logic).
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Aesthetics (also spelled esthetics) is a branch of philosophy, a species of value theory or axiology, which is the study of sensory or sensori-emotional values, sometimes called judgments of sentiment and taste. Aesthetics is closely associated with the philosophy of art.
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Literature literally "acquaintance with letters" (from Latin littera letter) as in the first sense given in the Oxford English Dictionary, or works of art, which in Western culture are mainly prose, both fiction and non-fiction, drama and poetry.
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19th century - 20th century - 21st century
1890s 1900s 1910s - 1920s - 1930s 1940s 1950s
1926 1927 1928 - 1929 - 1930 1931 1932

Year 1929 (MCMXXIX
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19th century - 20th century - 21st century
1890s 1900s 1910s - 1920s - 1930s 1940s 1950s
1922 1923 1924 - 1925 - 1926 1927 1928

Year 1925 (MCMXXV
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20th century - 21st century
1890s 1900s 1910s - 1920s - 1930s 1940s 1950s
1924 1925 1926 - 1927 - 1928 1929 1930

Year 1927 (MCMXXVII
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Ville de Paris

City flag City coat of arms

Motto: Fluctuat nec mergitur
(Latin: "Tossed by the waves, she does not sink")

The Eiffel Tower in Paris, as seen from the esplanade du Trocadéro.
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The term bohemian was first used in the nineteenth century to describe the untraditional lifestyles of marginalized and impoverished artists, writers, musicians, and actors in major European cities.
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Lost Generation refers to a group of American literary notables who lived in Paris and other parts of Europe from the time period which saw the end of World War I to the beginning of the Great Depression. Significant members included Ernest Hemingway, F.
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The Adventurer (Original title Mikael Karvajalka) by Mika Waltari is a 1948 fictional tale of young Finnish man, Mikael Karvajalka, set in 16th century medieval Europe.
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Liberal may refer to:

Politics:

Liberalism, a political ideology that seeks to maximize individual liberties.
Classical liberalism and/or social liberalism, the two major competing schools within liberalism.

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Tulenkantajat (The Flame Bearers) was a literature group in Finland during the 1920s. Tulenkantajat's main task was to find a way to take Finland from the so called backwood culture to the new, modern European level of literature.
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Conservatism is a term used to describe political philosophies that favor tradition and gradual change, where tradition refers to religious, cultural, or nationally defined beliefs and customs.
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19th century - 20th century - 21st century
1900s 1910s 1920s - 1930s - 1940s 1950s 1960s
1928 1929 1930 - 1931 - 1932 1933 1934

Year 1931 (MCMXXXI
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Centuries: 19th century - 20th century - 21st century

1900s 1910s 1920s - 1930s - 1940s 1950s 1960s
1930 1931 1932 1933 1934
1935 1936 1937 1938 1939

- -
- The 1930s
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Centuries: 19th century - 20th century - 21st century

1910s 1920s 1930s - 1940s - 1950s 1960s 1970s
1940 1941 1942 1943 1944
1945 1946 1947 1948 1949

- -
- The 1940s decade ran from 1940 to 1949.
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MeSH D007319

Insomnia is a sleeping disorder characterized by the inability to fall asleep and/or the inability to remain asleep for a reasonable amount of time.
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