Belonging to the generation that matured in the 1960s, Paul-Eerik Rummo is one of the most outstanding figures in contemporary Estonian poetry and drama. His lyrical poems reflect the moods and images typical of this time, while carrying on the best poetic traditions of Estonian literary heritage and making connections with the work of such previous writers as Juhan Liiv, Gustav Suits, Heiti Talvik, and Henrik Visnapuu. In addition, the first professional production of one of his plays, Tuhkatriinumäng (1969; translated as Cinderellagame , 1971), changed the theatrical landscape of Estonia almost overnight. For many, Rummo has become a mythical person, a veritable cultural hero in spite- or perhaps because-of his long period of silence in the 1970s and 1980s.

Paul-Eerik Rummo was born on 19 January 1942 in Tallinn as the youngest child (after two older sisters) in the family of the writer Paul Rummo and his wife, Tiio. He...