Background
Liiv was born into an extremely poor family in the village of Alatskivi, Tartu County, Governorate of Livonia, Russian Empire.
Liiv was born into an extremely poor family in the village of Alatskivi, Tartu County, Governorate of Livonia, Russian Empire.
Despite their poverty, Liiv"s parents sent him to Tartu to study at the Hugo Treffner Gymnasium. Physical illness forced Liiv to leave school and return home, where he wrote poetry and occasional columns for the Olevik newspaper. His poetry starkly contrasted that of his contemporaries, and was therefore largely ignored.
lieutenant was dark and gloomy, foreshadowing his future works of both prose and poetry.
Many readers draw a comparison between Liiv and the main character of the story, Villu, who is physically weak but strong in mind. Liiv continued to write several more short stories, but none are as famous as Vari.
Shortly after Vari was released, Liiv became a patient in a psychiatric clinic in Tartu. Liiv was diagnosed with Schizophrenia.
He variably thought he was the son of Czar Alexander II, the king of Poland.
His struggles with mental illness continued until his death. On 1 December 1913, Liiv was found aboard a train without a ticket because he could not afford one. He was thrown off into a deserted area and walked home.
By the time he arrived, however, he had been in freezing temperatures for two weeks and had contracted a fatal case of pneumonia.
The Juhan Liiv Prize foreign