A coin for the Finnish national readership. This year marks the 150th anniversary of the birth of Juhani Aho and Mint of Finland is commemorating this true friend of bookworms everywhere with a collector coin. The Finnish President, Tarja Halonen, is the official patron of the 150th anniversary celebration of Juhani Aho.
Juhani Aho (11.9.1861–8.8.1921) , born Johannes Brofeldt, was the first professional Finnish writer. His works gave a window on everyday life and the landscape of Finland. He was a master of psychological realism and brought other literary elements, such as French modernism, into our own national literary tradition.
Aho's novel Juha has been adapted twice for opera productions and four times for the big screen. Both as an author and as a journalist, Juhani Aho spoke out about the social problems of his day. Alongside his young Finnish co-ideologists, Aho founded the 'Päivälehti' newspaper, which later became what is now Finland's biggest selling broadsheet, 'Helsingin Sanomat'.
Artist of the golden-age
Mint of Finland has its own connection to the writer as Aho was married to Venny Soldan-Brofeldt, the daughter of the Mint's first director, August Soldan.
When they moved to Järvenpää in 1897, Aho and Soldan-Brofeldt founded the Tuusula artistic community and attracted to the area other golden-age Finnish artists, such as Pekka Halonen and Jean Sibelius.
Finnish literature has previously been commemorated with the Mika Waltari collector coin (2008) and the Tove Jansson and children's culture collector coin (2004), amongst others.
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