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The Most Famous

WRITERS from Latvia

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This page contains a list of the greatest Latvian Writers. The pantheon dataset contains 5,755 Writers, 26 of which were born in Latvia. This makes Latvia the birth place of the 40th most number of Writers behind Iraq and Serbia.

Top 10

The following people are considered by Pantheon to be the top 10 most legendary Latvian Writers of all time. This list of famous Latvian Writers is sorted by HPI (Historical Popularity Index), a metric that aggregates information on a biography’s online popularity. Visit the rankings page to view the entire list of Latvian Writers.

Photo of Aron Nimzowitsch

1. Aron Nimzowitsch (1886 - 1935)

With an HPI of 61.43, Aron Nimzowitsch is the most famous Latvian Writer.  His biography has been translated into 39 different languages on wikipedia.

Aron Nimzowitsch (Latvian: Ārons Nimcovičs, Russian: Аро́н Иса́евич Нимцо́вич, Aron Isayevich Nimtsovich; 7 November 1886 – 16 March 1935) was a Latvian born-Danish chess player and writer. In the late 1920s, Nimzowitsch was one of the best chess players in the world. He was the foremost figure amongst the hypermoderns and wrote a very influential book on chess theory: My System (1925–1927). Nimzowitsch's seminal work Chess Praxis, originally published in German in 1929, was purchased by a pre-teen and future World Champion Tigran Petrosian and was to have a great influence on his development as a chess player.

Photo of Jakob Michael Reinhold Lenz

2. Jakob Michael Reinhold Lenz (1751 - 1792)

With an HPI of 57.19, Jakob Michael Reinhold Lenz is the 2nd most famous Latvian Writer.  His biography has been translated into 29 different languages.

Jakob Michael Reinhold Lenz (23 January 1751, or 12 January in the Julian calendar – 4 June 1792, or 24 May in the Julian calendar) was a Baltic German writer of the Sturm und Drang movement.

Photo of Rainis

3. Rainis (1865 - 1929)

With an HPI of 56.73, Rainis is the 3rd most famous Latvian Writer.  His biography has been translated into 30 different languages.

Jānis Pliekšāns (11 September 1865 – 12 September 1929), known by his pseudonym Rainis, was a Latvian poet, playwright, translator, and politician. Rainis' works include the classic plays Uguns un nakts (Fire and Night, 1905) and Indulis un Ārija (Indulis and Ārija, 1911), and a highly regarded translation of Goethe's Faust. His works had a profound influence on the literary Latvian language, and the ethnic symbolism he employed in his major works has been central to Latvian nationalism.

Photo of Vilis Lācis

4. Vilis Lācis (1904 - 1966)

With an HPI of 54.39, Vilis Lācis is the 4th most famous Latvian Writer.  His biography has been translated into 26 different languages.

Vilis Lācis (12 May 1904 – 6 February 1966) was a Latvian writer and communist politician.Lācis was born Jānis Vilhelms Lāce into a working-class family in Vecmīlgrāvis (now part of Riga). During World War I, his family fled to the Altai region in Siberia, where Lācis studied at the pedagogical seminary in Barnaul. In 1921, Lācis returned to Riga and at various times worked as a fisherman, port worker, ship's fireman and librarian while writing in his free time. In 1933, he published his hugely successful novel Zvejnieka dēls ('Fisherman's Son'), making him one of the most popular and commercially successful Latvian writers of the 1930s. His novels have been characterized as popular fiction, not always liked by highbrow critics, but widely read by ordinary people. Throughout this period, Lācis maintained underground ties to the officially banned Communist Party of Latvia. Lācis was under periodic surveillance by the Latvian secret services due to his political activities. Eventually, Lācis became a favorite of Latvian president Karlis Ulmanis, who personally ordered the destruction of the surveillance files on Lācis. Lācis wrote newspaper editorials highly favorable of the Ulmanis regime, while still remaining a Communist supporter, and Ulmanis's government generously funded Lācis's writing and a film adaptation of 'Fisherman's Son'. During the Soviet period, eight films based on Lācis's works were produced, including a new adaptation of 'Fisherman's Son' in 1957. After Latvia was occupied and forcefully incorporated in the USSR in August 1940, Lācis became Chairman of the Council of Ministers of the Latvian SSR (nominally, Prime Minister) and served in this position from 1940 to 1959. When Nazi Germany occupied Latvia from 1941 to 1944, Lācis was evacuated to Moscow, where he continued to write in a socialist realist style. He was regarded mostly as a figurehead, as most of the actual decisions were made by the Central Committee of the Communist Party. As first Minister of the Interior and then Chairman of the Supreme Soviet, he must take personal responsibility for the Stalinist deportations and other aspects of the police state, and signed orders for the arrest and deportation of over 40,000 people.From 1954 to 1958, Lācis also served as Chairman of the Soviet of Nationalities. He was awarded the Order of Lenin seven times and the Stalin Prize twice, in 1949 and 1952.Lācis's books have been translated into more than 50 languages, with translations into Russian being the most numerous. He remains the most translated Latvian writer. He was among the contributors of semi-official literary magazine Karogs.

Photo of Ferdynand Antoni Ossendowski

5. Ferdynand Antoni Ossendowski (1876 - 1945)

With an HPI of 54.26, Ferdynand Antoni Ossendowski is the 5th most famous Latvian Writer.  His biography has been translated into 19 different languages.

Ferdynand Antoni Ossendowski (Polish pronunciation: [fɛrˈdɨ.nant anˈtɔ.ɲi ɔs.sɛnˈdɔf.ski]; 27 May 1876 – 3 January 1945) was a Polish writer, explorer, university professor, and anticommunist political activist. He is known for his books about Lenin and the Russian Civil War in which he participated.

Photo of Maria Skobtsova

6. Maria Skobtsova (1891 - 1945)

With an HPI of 53.58, Maria Skobtsova is the 6th most famous Latvian Writer.  Her biography has been translated into 20 different languages.

Maria Skobtsova (20 [8 Old Calendar] December 1891 – 31 March 1945), known as Mother Maria (Russian: Мать Мария), Saint Mary (or Mother Maria) of Paris, born Elizaveta Yurievna Pilenko (Елизавета Юрьевна Пиленко), Kuzmina-Karavayeva (Кузьмина-Караваева) by her first marriage, Skobtsova (Скобцова) by her second marriage, was a Russian noblewoman, poet, nun, and member of the French Resistance during World War II. She has been canonized a saint in the Eastern Orthodox Church.

Photo of Barbara von Krüdener

7. Barbara von Krüdener (1764 - )

With an HPI of 53.51, Barbara von Krüdener is the 7th most famous Latvian Writer.  Her biography has been translated into 15 different languages.

Beate Barbara Juliane Freifrau von Krüdener (née Freiin von Vietinghoff genannt Scheel; 22 November [O.S. 11] 1764 – 25 December [O.S. 13] 1824), often called by her formal French name, Madame de Krüdener, was a Baltic German religious mystic, author, and Pietist Lutheran theologian who exerted influence on wider European Protestantism, including the Swiss Reformed Church and the Moravian Church, and whose ideas influenced Tsar Alexander I of Russia.

Photo of Aspazija

8. Aspazija (1865 - 1943)

With an HPI of 53.15, Aspazija is the 8th most famous Latvian Writer.  Her biography has been translated into 26 different languages.

Aspazija was the pen name of Elza Johanna Emilija Lizete Pliekšāne (née Elza Rozenberga; 16 March 1865 – 5 November 1943), a Latvian poet and playwright. Aspazija is the Latvian transliteration of Aspasia.

Photo of Yury Tynyanov

9. Yury Tynyanov (1894 - 1943)

With an HPI of 52.78, Yury Tynyanov is the 9th most famous Latvian Writer.  His biography has been translated into 23 different languages.

Yury Nikolaevich Tynyanov (Russian: Ю́рий Никола́евич Тыня́нов, IPA: [ˈjʉrʲɪj nʲɪkɐˈlajɪvʲɪtɕ tɨˈnʲænəf]; October 18, 1894 – December 20, 1943) was a Soviet writer, literary critic, translator, scholar and screenwriter. He was an authority on Pushkin and an important member of the Russian Formalist school. Born in a Jewish community in the Russian Empire in modern-day Latvia, he moved to Saint Petersburg where he completed his education. During the 1920s in the Soviet Union, he published numerous novels, works, and movie scripts, as well as working as a translator. However, his health declined during the 1930s and he died in 1943 from multiple sclerosis.

Photo of Vizma Belševica

10. Vizma Belševica (1931 - 2005)

With an HPI of 52.66, Vizma Belševica is the 10th most famous Latvian Writer.  Her biography has been translated into 26 different languages.

Vizma Belševica (May 30, 1931 – August 6, 2005) was a Latvian poet, writer, and translator. She was nominated for the Nobel Prize in Literature.

Pantheon has 26 people classified as writers born between 1751 and 1933. Of these 26, none of them are still alive today. The most famous deceased writers include Aron Nimzowitsch, Jakob Michael Reinhold Lenz, and Rainis. As of April 2022, 3 new writers have been added to Pantheon including Barbara von Krüdener, Andrejs Upīts, and Anna Brigadere.

Deceased Writers

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Newly Added Writers (2022)

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Which Writers were alive at the same time? This visualization shows the lifespans of the 25 most globally memorable Writers since 1700.