Bibliography of Paul Laan

In the Under and Tuglas Literature Centre, Jaan Undusk is leading the preparatory works to publish Paul Laan’s selected written works, including manuscripts.

Paul Laan (born on 28 August 1928 in Narva) is a philologist (philosophy licentiate 1966) and a poet living in Stockholm and a meritorious promoter of Estonian culture and research in Sweden. He has taught Estonian and German at the Estonian High School in Stockholm (1961–1979) and the Estonian language at Uppsala (1974–1978) and Stockholm University (1971–1995). From 1970 he worked as the head of the Estonian department of the chair of Finnish language at Stockholm University (until 1994) and also as the research secretary (= head) and chair of the Institute of Estonian Language and Literature established at the department (until its closure in 2017). In this capacity, he also organised annual Estonian language courses from 1971–2008.

In addition to many other duties, Paul Laan constantly visited Marie Under and Artur Adson in the hospital and retirement home in the years 1975–1980. He was the funeral director for Adson (1977), Under (1980) and her daughter Hedda Hakker (1988), the receiver of Adson and Under’s legacy and its original arranger and caretaker.

On 18 June 1993, Paul Laan visited the former home of Adson and Under in Rahumäe, i.e. the newly established Museum Department of the Under and Tuglas Literature Centre and recorded this event in the guestbook as “A unique moment in a unique house”. He also visited the museum on 23 August 1999 and 3 May 2002. Needless to say, he was also here on 9 June 2016, the day of the reburial of the ashes of Under, Adson and their relatives from Sweden.

Paul Laan has published a collection of aphorisms and poems “Mõttelend” (Flight of Thought, 1972) and numerous articles in the press, an overview of which can be found in the bibliography prepared by Signe Suursööt, an information specialist of the National Library of Estonia.