KLEOFO JURGELIONIO LAIŠKAI VALERIJAI TYSLIAVIENEI

Abstract

The article examines the letters of Kleofas Jurgelionis (1886–1963; Kleopas Jurgelionis, USA – Ray Jurgen), who was a moderniser of Lithuanian poetry, a literary critic, a translator, an editor of periodicals, publicist and lawyer, to Valerija Tysliavienė (1914–1984), who from 1938 to 1940 was a secretary of his newspaper “Tėvynė”, preserved at the Klaipėda University Library (KUB RSS). These letters (1949–1961) are very rich in content, in them the subject themes are abundantly weaved with courtship. This article discusses the topics of Jurgelionis’s letters to Tysliavienė. Taking into account the reasearch into Jurgelionis’s life and creative works and the KUB RSS archive and publications, this article sets out a twofold purpose: to discuss the content of Jurgelionis’s letters to Tysliaviene and to discuss poetry manuscripts and their publications with a textological lens.First of all, this article discusses the general features of the letters, then the article touches upon the dominant topics in the letters. Another, co-stored material is used for interpreting the letters: dozens of letters from the poet to other people; a letter from Henrietta Jurgen, his third wife, to Tysliavienė; several poetry poems; manuscripts of articles revealing new details about his life and the origins of his creative work, his relationship with the Lithuanians in the USA, the activities of the Lithuanian Writers’ Society (USA), the behind the scenes look at the operations at the newspaper “Vienybė”, the cultural and social life of the emigrants, etc.; as well as a bundle of the American Lithuanian periodicals from the archive of “Vienybė”.