Vilde E. (Eduard Vilde, 1865-1933)

Prolific writer (33 volumes of novels, stories, plays, travelogues and humorous pieces), considered the first modern European in Estonia, and acclaimed as one of its greatest writers. See Piimamehe. A lifelong moderate socialist, Wilde spent three weeks on Ellis Island in 1911 while the Americans sniffed his credentials. There is a sculpture of him sitting next to his namealike Oscar Wilde outside the former Wilde printing house, now pub, in Vallikraavi (moat, counterscarp) in Tartu. See also Mahtra.