Lauri Viita

I drove Emma to Hervanta in the afternoon and I continued to water excercise in Varala Training Center. After the class I drove to Pispala area nearby. In the picture is a bus stop with painting of famous poet Lauri Viita, who lived in the area.

The poet and novelist Lauri Viita (1916–1965) was born in Pispala, Tampere. Lauri was 7th and the youngest child of carpenter Emil Viita and his wife Alfhild. Viita was a verbally talented son of a carpenter who became a self-taught writer.  Lauri Viita worked as a carpenter before he become a full-time writer. He published four collections of poems, which became very popular. Viita published also two novels. He inspired other writers who had a working-class background. 

Lauri Viita started to write already in school. When his first anthology of poetry, Betonimylläri (”Cement Mason”) became populer, he decided to leave his daily work. The novel Moreeni (“Moraine”) was published in 1950. It is about the colourful daily life of a worker family in Pispala in the early 20th century and despite its fictionality the novel has elements from Viita’s own childhood.

Viita was married three times and had seven children. His second wife was famous poet Aila Meriluoto. His last creative years were shadowed by a mental illness, and he spent several periods in hospital. Viita died in a car accident in December 1965, when the taxi he was in was struck by a truck driven by a drunk driver.


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