Eduard Vilde is one of the major figures of the formative period of contemporary Estonian literature. He wrote the first original novels published in Estonia and established critical realism as a literary method in Estonian prose. He is also the author of the first psychological novel. Before the emergence of the Noor-Eesti (Young Estonia) literary circle in 1905, Vilde was the best-educated and the most-popular Estonian writer, and the level of his art was much higher than that of other authors of the period. Later he was adored by the masses, and his works are still read for their style and deep humanism.

Eduard Vilde was born on 4 March 1865 at the Pudivere manor in northern Estonia, the son of the estate overseer, Jüri Vilde, and his wife, Leena. In 1875 Vilde attended the Luther Elementary School (better known by the principal's name as the Kentmann School) in Tallinn...