Lehtonen, Joel

Born Nov. 27, 1881, in Säminki; died Nov. 20, 1934, in Huopalahti. Finnish author.

Lehtonen was the son of a farm woman. In 1904 his neoromantic novels The Devil’s Violin and Perm were published, followed in 1905 by his psychological novel Matalaina. In the collection of short stories From the Fair (1912), Lehtonen gave a realistic picture of village life. His realism attained maturity in the novels It Was in Summer (1917), Dead Apple Trees (1918), and The Residents of Putkinotko (1919–20). Intimate themes occupy an important place in his later works, including Son of Happiness (1925).