Frans Eemil Sillanpää (16 September 1888 – 3 June 1964) was one of the most famous Finnish

Finland

Finland , officially the Republic of Finland, is a Nordic country situated in the Fennoscandian region of Northern Europe. It is bordered by Sweden in the west, Norway in the north and Russia in the east, while Estonia lies to its south across the Gulf of Finland.Around 5.4 million people reside...

 writers.

He was awarded the Nobel Prize in Literature

Nobel Prize in Literature

Since 1901, the Nobel Prize in Literature has been awarded annually to an author from any country who has, in the words from the will of Alfred Nobel, produced "in the field of literature the most outstanding work in an ideal direction"...

 in 1939 "for 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."

Frans Eemil Sillanpää was born into a peasant

Peasant

A peasant is an agricultural worker who generally tend to be poor and homeless-Etymology:The word is derived from 15th century French païsant meaning one from the pays, or countryside, ultimately from the Latin pagus, or outlying administrative district.- Position in society :Peasants typically...

 family in Hämeenkyrö

Hämeenkyrö

Hämeenkyrö is a municipality of Finland.It is located in the province of Western Finland and is part of the Pirkanmaa region. The municipality has a population of and covers an area of of which is water...

. Although his parents were poor, they managed to send him to school in Tampere

Tampere

Tampere is a city in southern Finland. It is the most populous inland city in any of the Nordic countries. The city has a population of , growing to approximately 300,000 people in the conurbation and over 340,000 in the metropolitan area. Tampere is the third most-populous municipality in...

. In 1908 he moved to Helsinki

Helsinki

Helsinki is the capital and largest city in Finland. It is in the region of Uusimaa, located in southern Finland, on the shore of the Gulf of Finland, an arm of the Baltic Sea. The population of the city of Helsinki is , making it by far the most populous municipality in Finland. Helsinki is...

 to study medicine. Here his acquaintances included the painters Eero Järnefelt

Eero Järnefelt

Eero Erik Nikolai Järnefelt was a Finnish realist painter.Eero Järnefelt was born in Viipuri, Finland. His father August Aleksander Järnefelt was an officer in the Russian army and his mother was Elisabeth Järnefelt . He studied at the St...

 and Pekka Halonen

Pekka Halonen

Pekka Halonen was a painter of Finnish landscapes and people. He lived with his family in a home and studio on Lake Tuusula in Järvenpää, Finland that he, himself, designed and named Halosenniemi. The beautiful and serene building is now a museum that includes original furnishings and Halonen’s...

, composer Jean Sibelius

Jean Sibelius

Jean Sibelius was a Finnish composer of the later Romantic period whose music played an important role in the formation of the Finnish national identity. His mastery of the orchestra has been described as "prodigious."...

 and author Juhani Aho

Juhani Aho

Juhani Aho, originally Johannes Brofeldt, was a Finnish author and journalist.Aho's literary output is wide-ranging since he pursued different styles as time passed....

.

In 1913 Sillanpää moved from Helsinki to his old home village and devoted himself to writing.

He won international fame for his novel Nuorena nukkunut (The Maid Silja/Fallen Asleep While Young) in 1931.

The asteroid

Asteroid

Asteroids are a class of small Solar System bodies in orbit around the Sun. They have also been called planetoids, especially the larger ones...

 1446 Sillanpää

1446 Sillanpää

1446 Sillanpää is a main belt asteroid with an orbital period of 1229.4888810 days . The asteroid was discovered on January 26, 1938.-References:...

, discovered by the renowned Finnish astronomer and physicist Yrjö Väisälä

Yrjö Väisälä

Yrjö Väisälä was a Finnish astronomer and physicist.His main contributions were in the field of optics, but he was also very active in geodetics, astronomy and optical metrology...

, was named after him.

Works

• Elämä ja aurinko (1916)
• Ihmislapsia elämän saatossa (1917)
• Hurskas kurjuus (translated as Meek Heritage) (1919)
• Rakas isänmaani (1919)
• Hiltu ja Ragnar (1923)
• Enkelten suojatit (1923)
• Omistani ja omilleni (1924)
• Maan tasalta (1924)
• Töllinmäki (1925)
• Rippi (1928)
• Kiitos hetkistä, Herra... (1930)
• Nuorena nukkunut (translated as The Maid Silja) (1931)
• Miehen tie (1932)
• Virranpohjalta (1933)
• Ihmiset suviyössä (translated as People in the Summer Night) (1934)
• Viidestoista (1936)
• Elokuu (1941)
• Ihmiselon ihanuus ja kurjuus (1945)

External links

• "The Game Behind Finland's First Nobel prize", article (in Swedish; based on documents in the Nobel Archive), first published in Svenska Dagbladet
  Svenska Dagbladet
  Svenska Dagbladet is a daily newspaper in Sweden. The first issue appeared on 18 December 1884. Svenska Dagbladet is published in Stockholm and provides coverage of national and international news as well as local coverage of the Greater Stockholm region...
  
  , 5 December 2009; later published in Finish daily newspaper Helsingin Sanomat
  Helsingin Sanomat
  Helsingin Sanomat is the largest subscription newspaper in Finland and the Nordic countries, owned by Sanoma. Except after certain holidays, it is published daily. In 2008, its daily circulation was 412,421 on weekdays and 468,505 on Sundays...
  
  .