Madde Kalda


Madde Kalda was an Estonian writer.

Life

Madde Kalda was born in Põikma in the Governorate of Estonia in the Russian Empire. She was the daughter of the farmer Jaan Alavina and Ann Alavina . She attended the Hageri village school and the Hageri Educational Society School, which she graduated from in 1917. She worked as an assistant secretary in the municipal government of Kernu, Hageri, and Vao from 1923 to 1925, and then she was a housewife in Väike-Maarja. She was married to Johannes Kalda, and their daughter was the literary scholar Maie Kalda. From 1978 to 1981, she lived in the village of Tamse on the island of Muhu, and then once more in Väike-Maarja, where she also died.

Literary work

In the 1978 Estonian Novel Competition, her work Vigalas Siberimaale received honorable mention, and it was published in abridged form in 1981 under the title Seitse tähte taeva Sõelas. It was a detailed and factually accurate story based on the author's mother's life story and family traditions, with an abundance of ethnographic material, about the life of the villagers and manor folk of Lääne County in the late 19th and early 20th centuries. The work was enthusiastically received.

Awards