Sillanpää, Frans Eemil (1888–1964)

Finnish novelist. His works include Hurskas kurjuus/Meek Heritage (1919), dealing with events that led to World War I, and Nuorena nukkunut/Fallen Asleep While Young (1931) and Miehen tie/One Man's Way (1932), both dealing with ideas of ‘biological fatalism’. He was awarded the Nobel Prize for Literature in 1939.

Sillanpää's native town of Hämeenkyrö, near Tampere, provided the scene for most of his novels. After studying biology at Helsinki University, he devoted himself completely to writing and published his first novel, a love story, 1916. He gained a reputation as the foremost Finnish author of his day, and the novel written during World War II, Ihmiselon ihanuus ja kurjuus/The Beauty and Misery of Human Life (1945), is considered by some his finest work.