Ieva Simonaitytė ✝

Ieva Simonaitytė is a writer from the Klaipėda region, a creator of autobiographical stories and novels, a depicter of everyday life and the exceptional fates of Lithuanians.

Ieva Simonaitytė (Ewa Simoneit) was born on January 23, 1897 in Klaipėda. She was born on January 18, 2001 in Vanagi, Klaipėda County. At the age of five, she contracted bone dryness, which prevented her from attending school. Her mother taught her to read and write. In her youth, she had to work with walking sticks: shepherding strange geese, looking after small children. The writer's work comes from her life experience, reading books, and observing the environment and especially nature.

In 1912-1914, Simonaitytė was treated at the Angerburg Sanatorium in Germany (now Węgorzewo, Poland). She returned from there in good health. She worked as a seamstress, was involved in Lithuanian activities: she worked in the Vanagi Lithuanian youth association "Eglė", collaborated in "Tilžės keleivys" and other Lithuanian press in Lithuania Minor.

In 1921, I. Simonaitytė moved to Klaipėda. She graduated from evening courses in typing and shorthand. She worked at the Lithuanian Consulate, at the Ryto printing house as a proofreader, at the editorial office of the Prūsų lietuvių balso (Lithuanian Voice of Prussia), and later at the Seimelis office as a typist and translator. She lived in Klaipėda until 1939. After that, she did not return to Klaipėda, but settled briefly in Telšiai, then Kaunas; from 1963 she lived in Vilnius, and spent her summers in Priekulė, where she built a summer house in 1961. In 1967 she was awarded the title of People's Writer of the Lithuanian SSR.

I. Simonaitytė's creative inclinations emerged very early. Her works were published in newspapers, but until 1935 Simonaitytė's name was unknown in the world of literature. In 1935, she was awarded the Lithuanian State Literature Prize for her novel "The Likimas Aukštieji Šimonių". From 1936, Simonaitytė devoted herself exclusively to literary work and was granted a pension. Although in poor health, Simonaitytė wrote constantly and her work was published, often several times: "Spring Storms" (1938), "Vilius Karalius" (1939, 1956), "Without a Father" (1941), "Apysakos" (1948), "Pikčiurnienė" (1953), "... And it was like this" (1960), "Ne ta pastogė" (1962), "Nebaigta knyga" (Unfinished Book) (1965), "Gretimos storijėlės" (1968). Her work has been translated into Latvian, Russian, German, English, Polish, Chinese, Belarusian, Romanian, Kazakh, Spanish, French, Czech.