Helvi Hämäläinen
{{Short description|Finnish author}}
File:Helvi-Hamalainen-1943.jpg (1911–1979) creating a bust of the writer Helvi Hämäläinen (1907–1998).]]
Helvi Hämäläinen (16 June 1907 – 17 January 1998) was a Finnish writer who published dozens of books of prose and poetry during her six decade writing career.{{cite web |url=http://nordicwomensliterature.net/writer/h%C3%A4m%C3%A4l%C3%A4inen-helvi |title=Hämäläinen, Helvi |publisher=The History of Nordic Women's Literature |accessdate=25 January 2015 |language= |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20140606202641/http://nordicwomensliterature.net/writer/h%C3%A4m%C3%A4l%C3%A4inen-helvi |archive-date=6 June 2014 |url-status=dead }}
Biography
Helvi Heleena Hämäläinen was born in Hamina, 16 June 1907. She moved to Helsinki with her parents Aaro and Iida Hämäläinen while still a pre-schooler.
Hämäläinen's first published novel, Hyväntekijä (The Benefactor) appeared in 1930, but her breakthrough came five years later with her feminist depiction of the working-class, Katuojan vettä (Water in a Gutter). Hämäläinen's best-known book, Säädyllinen murhenäytelmä (A Decent Tragedy), appeared in 1941. A roman à clef, it caused a great sensation: readers were able to identify several notable cultural personalities of the day, Hämäläinen's former lover Olavi Paavolainen among them.{{cite web|url=http://www.blf.fi/artikel.php?ref=sok&id=4836 |title=Hämäläinen, Helvi |website=Biografiskt lexikon för Finland |publisher=Svenska litteratursällskapet |accessdate=20 November 2017 |language=sv }}{{cite web |url=http://kirjasto.sci.fi:80/hhamalai.htm |title=Hämäläinen, Helvi |last=Liukkonen |first=Petri |website=Books and Writers |access-date=2017-11-16 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20061208094616/http://kirjasto.sci.fi/hhamalai.htm |archive-date=2006-12-08 |url-status=dead }} Hämäläinen's first novel, a modernist first-person text Kaunis sielu (The Beautiful Soul) was written already in the winter of 1927–28, but it wasn't published until 2001, assumedly because of its portrayal of same-sex desire.{{cite book |last1=Ovaska |first1=Anna |title=Fictions of Madness: Shattering Minds and Worlds in Modernist Finnish Literature |date=2020 |publisher=University of Helsinki |isbn=978-951-51-5743-0 |url=http://urn.fi/URN:ISBN:978-951-51-5743-0}}{{cite book |last1=Stang |first1=Alexandra |title=Possibilities, Silences: The Publishing and Reception of Queer Topics in Finland during the Interwar Years (and Beyond) |date=2015 |publisher=University of Helsinki |isbn=978-951-51-1730-4 |url=http://urn.fi/URN:ISBN:978-951-51-1730-4}}
In 1987, after two decades out of the spotlight, Hämäläinen returned to the public eye when her book of poems, Sukupolveni unta (Dreams of My Generation), won the Finlandia Prize.
Hämäläinen died at the age of 90 on 17 January 1998. She is buried in the Orthodox cemetery of Helsinki.
Awards
She was awarded the Pro Finlandia Medal in 1959.[http://www.ritarikunnat.fi/index.php/fi/ritarikunnat/rekisterit/173-suomen-leijonan-pro-finlandia-mitalin-saajat-1945-2015 Pro Finlandia] {{in lang|fi}}
References
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Category:People from Viipuri Province (Grand Duchy of Finland)
Category:Writers from Kymenlaakso
Category:Finnish women novelists
Category:20th-century Finnish poets
Category:Recipients of the Eino Leino Prize
Category:Finlandia Prize winners