author

Evald Jakku

b. 1877

A Finnish playwright and newspaperman, he wrote lively popular plays in the early 1900s and led a remarkably varied life on both sides of the Atlantic. His story stretches from rural Ostrobothnia to immigrant journalism and even prospecting in the mountains of Montana.

1 Audiobook

Kilpakosijat : Kaksinäytöksinen pila

Kilpakosijat : Kaksinäytöksinen pila

by Evald Jakku

About the author

Born on November 23, 1877, in Laihia, Finland, Ludvig Evald Jakku was a Finnish newspaperman and playwright. He was active in local educational and youth groups, later spent time in Helsinki, and then moved to the United States in the late 1890s, where he also adopted the surname Kaukonen.

In the United States he worked as a traveling agent and reporter for Finnish-American newspapers, including Amerikan Uutiset and Päivälehti. After returning to Finland for a few years, he published around a dozen popular amateur and society plays, building a reputation as a writer of accessible stage works. Surviving editions and library records connect him with titles such as Kilpakosijat, Retusen velkojat, and Syiden kirous.

He later went back to the United States and continued a restless, wide-ranging life, working again in journalism and also living as a farmer and prospector in Montana. He died in Butte, Montana, on March 1, 1967.