Estonian LiterarY Museum
Correspondence of two friends and cultural figures
The dataset contains the private correspondence of the well-known Estonian writers and cultural figures Johannes Vares-Barbarus (1890–1946) and Johannes Semper (1892–1970). Barbarus’s letters are preserved in the Estonian Cultural History Archives at the Estonian Literary Museum, and Semper’s letters to Barbarus are held in the Estonian National Archives.
The correspondence from the years 1911–1939 consists of 670 letters, with a total length of more than 1,100 pages (published as a two-volume book). Since the two men were childhood friends who remained connected throughout their lives by shared interests (poetry, translation, foreign travel, sports, etc.), the correspondence is thematically rich.
