Nobel Prize Recipient. Frans Emil Sillaspaa, a Finnish author, received international recognition after being awarded the 1939 Nobel Prize in Literature for, according to the Nobel committee, “ his deep understanding of his country's peasantry and the exquisite art with which he has portrayed their way of life and their relationship with Nature." Starting in 1930, he received 39 nominations for the Nobel candidacy. He was the first person from Finland to receive the Nobel Prize and the only one in the category of literature. He wrote at least twenty novels. Born in a time when the Grand Duchy of Finland was part of the Russian Empire, his father was a peasant farmer and his birthplace was a poor rented farm house. He knew first-hand the hard life of being a peasant, bringing this to pen and paper. The Finnish cold killed the seeds in the ground, frozen the animals, and caused children to die young; he and the youngest of his large family were the only two that lived to adulthood. He did not have regularly schooling as a child, but attended the mobile school. With much encouragement from teachers, his father allowed him to be sent away to attend high school. He graduated in 1908. On a scholarship, he attended the University of Helsinki for five years studying biology in hope of becoming a physician but never graduating. From his college days, he did get a view of the world’s modern society, and being able to compare it to his remote peasant life-style. He was exposed to the art community. He returned home to his parents and with pen and paper, wrote his first story. The next year he went to Sweden and Denmark, writing newspaper articles with the thought of becoming a journalist, but that did not happen. His first short stories were published in magazines in 1915. His first novel, a summer love story, was in 1915 and by 1916 was translated into English as “Life and the Sun.” The novel was criticized as being almost pornographic. His third book was the 1919 “Meek Heritage,” which was the Finnish Civil War from the viewpoint of a peasant soldier and very successful. From 1924 to 1927 he worked for a publishing company in Porvoo, and got advance payment from the publisher for a book. A new creative period followed in the early 1930s, when he wrote several of his best works. He gained international recognition with “The Maid Silja” in 1931. In 1936, the University of Helsinki conferred on Sillanpää an honorary doctorate degree. He married and had eight children. A few weeks after his first wife died of pneumonia in April of 1939, he learned that he had received the Nobel Prize, and a couple of days later, was married for the second time to his secretary, who traveled with him to the Nobel presentation ceremony in Sweden. A few days after he received the Nobel Prize, the Winter War began with a Soviet Union invasion of Finland on November 30, 1939. He had stayed in Sweden until March of 1940 to rise support for Finland during this war. His oldest son joined the military, which inspired him to write the lyrics to a Finnish patriotic song, “Sillanpään marssilaulu.” Sillanpää donated his Nobel Prize gold medal to be melted for funds to aid this war effort as did Swedish Selma Lagerlö, 1909 Nobel Prize in Literature. Three months later the war was over with Finland holding its own against the powerful Soviet army. Shortly after his divorce in 1941, he collapsed from nervous exhaustion and was hospitalized for some time for alcoholism and other health issues but was back on the radio by 1943 and publishing another book by 1944. He become known for the Christmas sermons he gave on the radio between 1945 and 1963. His personality had change, becoming more of a grandfather with a beard. At this point, he was given the nickname of "Taata" or Granddad. As a young man, he was handsome, being over six-foot tall, having large features with dark hair and eyes. A collection of his political and social essays and his travel accounts were published in 1956 under the title “Day at its Highest.” His collected works were published in twelve volumes between 1932 and 1948. Many of his books have been translated in every civilized language from Icelandic to Hebrew. Some of his works which have been translated into English are “Meek Heritage ,”Fallen Asleep While Young : The History of the Last Offshoot of an Old Family Tree” or in United States “The Maid Silja,” “The Way of Man” and “People in the Summer Night.” A Finnish postage stamp was released in 1980 in honor of Sillanpää. About ten of his novels were adapted to films or for television. The asteroid 1446 Sillanpää, discovered on January 26, 1938 by the renowned Finnish astronomer and physicist Yrjö Väisälä, was named in honor of the famous Finnish author. In 2013 in celebration of his 125th birthday, Finland issued a two-Euro coin and a ten-Euro coin with his image on the face of each coin. In the summer of 2017, an opera based on Sillanpää’s life premiered for a two-week period at Myllykolu’s Summer Theatre. Critics state that not only did he “demonstrate an exceptional literary talent, but they have also inspired the writer’s fellow countrymen for decades,” yet his name is offer listed among the unknown or forgotten Nobel Prize recipients.