Lithuanian poet, translator, the first modernist, exodus author.
Henrikas Radauskas, like his twin brother Bruno, was born in the family of Bernardas Radauskas and Amalija Kieragga Radauskienė. Henrikas and Bruno's mother had unsuccessful births before the twins were born. Therefore, the family decided to give birth to the twins in Krakow, where Amalia's sister, a midwife, lived and thanks to her, the birth was successful. After the birth of the children, the family returned to Lithuania, to their native village of Gikonys. Gikoniai was a village belonging to Rozalim Valsčius, near the Daugyvenė River, Smilgiai parish. The twins were the only children of Bernard and Amalia. Henrik's mother, who came from East Prussia, was half-German and half-Polish, so the children knew Lithuanian, German and Polish. Part of his childhood was spent in the village of Gikonys (Pakruojis district). During the First World War he lived in Novo-Nikolaevsk (now Novosibirsk), Russia, and attended primary school. He went to Lithuania in 1921, attended Panevėžys Gymnasium, and graduated from Panevėžys Teachers' Seminary. In 1936 he worked at the Klaipėda Radiofon, in 1937-1941 - at the book publishing commission of the Ministry of Education, at the State Publishing House in Kaunas.
In 1944 he left for the West, lived in Berlin for a year, and from there moved to Roitlingen. In 1949 he moved to the USA, living in Baltimore and Chicago. He worked as a manual labourer for a long time, and from 1959 he worked at the Library of Congress in Washington, D.C.
Buried in the U.S.A., in the cemetery in Washington, D.C.
H. Radauskas was one of the most famous Lithuanian modernist poets, an esthete. His poetry is distinguished by a variety of colours, images and sounds. The poet searched for beauty, aesthetic emotions, and artistic meaning in nature, environment, and everyday life.
H. Radauskas was always trying not to be like others. He strived to make his work distinctive, not copying someone else. It is difficult to attribute his poems to a particular movement - his whole work is like a separate movement or a mixture of different movements.
