Joel Lehtonen

Joel Lehtonen (27 November 1881 – 20 November 1934) was a Finnish author, translator, critic and journalist. He was born in Sääminki (now part of Savonlinna). His childhood was fatherless and poverty-stricken, his mother suffered from mental frailties and Lehtonen himself was forced into paupery. Lehtonen's foster mother supported his schooling. He was able to study literature for a few years in the University of Helsinki, but dropped out without completing a degree. As an author, he began as a neoromanticist, but after the Finnish Civil War his outlook transformed into deep pessimism and disenchanted scepticism. Having suffered for years from various ailments, he committed suicide by hanging himself with a rope, that had been used to wrap up a parcel of books, in November 1934.