NYPL Acquires First Book of Poetry by Aleksis Rannit

Aleksis/Aleksei Rannit (born Dolgopolov), an Estonian poet, art critic, and librarian was born in Kallaste, Russian Empire [now Estonia] in 1914 but spent the first six  years of his life in Petrograd. After the war, he moved to Estonia and immigrated to Germany in 1939 after the Soviet Union began occupying Estonia. In 1953 he arrived in the United States where he received his MA in art history from Columbia University. During 1956-1961 he worked at The New York Public Library, first at the Art & Architecture Division, and later at the Slavonic Division including as its First Assistant. In 1961 he became the Curator of the Slavic and East European collections at Yale University Library and remained there for 20 years until his retirement. 

Rannit's writings include poetry in Estonian and in English translation and several works of literary and art criticism. His collected poems Valimik luuletisi, 1932-1982 (1985) includes a critical afterword by Viktor Kõressaar (1916-2002) and Ants Oras (1900-1982). Oras was an Estonian translator and writer while Kõressaar worked at NYPL's Slavonic Division since 1952, including as its First Assistant in the Slavonic  (after Rannit left in 1961) and as its Chief (1976-1983). A couple of decades earlier, Rannit and Kõressaar edited Estonian Poetry and Language: Studies in Honor of Ants Oras (1965).

Rannit played a vital role in P.E.N., the International Association of Poets, Playwrights, Editors, Essayists, and Novelists. He also received an honorary doctor of letters degree from Stockholm University in 1978 and from the University of South Korea in Seoul in 1981.

Rannit died of a heart attack in 1985 at his home in New Haven, Connecticut. His papers that consist chiefly of subject files maintained by him, dating roughly from the 1950s to the 1980s, are held by Yale.

Akna raamistuses: esimesi värsse  (Kaunas: Kirjastus "Sakalas," 1937) is the first book publication by Rannit. It includes Rannit's poems written in Estonian between 1932 and 1937 as well as translations from Lithuanian poets: Vytautas Syrian Gira (1911-1997), Kazys Inčiura (1906-1974), Jonas Aistis (1904-1973), Antanas Miškinis (1905-1983), Stasys Santvaras (1902-1991), Alé Sidabraité, Jevgeni Škljar (1894-1941), and Petras Vaičiunas (1890-1959). 

Rannit, who was deeply interested in Estonian, Lithuanian, and Russian cultures, dedicated the book to "the Immortal Light of the Soul of the Poet and Man Liudas Gira and my Lithuanian Friends." Liudas Gira (1884-1946) was a Lithuanian poet, writer, and literary critic who was friends with  Konstantin Dmitriyevich Balmont (1867-1942), a Russian symbolist poet, and translator who among other authors translated works by Gira. Thus the title page also includes a motto in Russian taken from Balmont's work "To Liudas Gira". 

Original pictorial wrappers are by Ott Kangilaski  (1911-1975) who was a book illustrator, cartoonist, and also published art articles and books. Kangilaski also created decorative initials throughout the book and three woodcuts.

NYPL's copy is signed and inscribed by the author.

Bibliography

• “Prof. Alexis Rannit, 70, Poet and Retired Curator at Yale,” New York Times, January 9, 1985, p. B6.
• Robert H. Davis, Jr., “History of Slavic and East European Collections in the United States During the Interwar Period: An Agenda for Research,” Solanus new series 15 (2001): 50, footnote 49;
• Robert H. Davis, Jr. and Edward Kasinec, “From Shelf to Spotlight: Rediscovering Modernist Books from Eastern Europe at The New York Public Library,” in:  S.A. Mansbach with Wojciech Jan Siemaszkiewicz, Graphic Modernism: from the Baltic to the Balkans, 1910-1935 ([New York]: New York Public Library, c2007): 68, footnote 32.
• Janis A. Kreslins, "In Memoriam Dr. Viktor Koressaar (1916–2002)," Slavic & East European Information Resources 5:1-2 (2004): 77-79.