THE CHANGES IN THE PUBLISHING SYSTEM AND BOOK PRODUCTION IN ESTONIA 2: BOOK PRODUCTION 1918 -1940
Mare Lott, Aile Möldre, Chair of Book Studies, Department of Information Studies, Tallinn University of Educational Sciences
The division of the Estonian book production by contents is presented in table 2. The comparison with the earlier periods enables to point out the characteristic changes in the contents of the printed matter and analyze their causes (Antik 1936, 47-74 ).
Table 2. The Estonian Book by Contents (by UDC) ___________________________________________________________
| 1525-1917 | 1918-1940 | |||
| Number of titles | % | Number of titles | % | |
| 0 General works | 2337 | 16,1 | 2421 | 10,2 |
| calendars | 1597 | |||
| 1 Philosophy | 220 | 1,5 | 199 | 0,8 |
| 2 Religion | 3437 | 23,7 | 1351 | 5,7 |
| 3 Social sciences | 2155 | 14,9 | 6520 | 27,3 |
| of that Statistics | ||||
| Economics | 461 | 1805 | ||
| Law | 123 | 437 | ||
| Statutes | 891 | 1615 | ||
| Education | 244 | 1024 | ||
| 4 Linguistics | 652 | 9,6 | 959 | 4,0 |
| 5 Natural and exact sciences | 178 | 1353 | 5,7 | |
| 6 Applied sciences | 1204 | 8,9 | 3544 | 14,8 |
| of that Medicine | 297 | 538 | ||
| Technics | 4 | 296 | ||
| Agriculture | 339 | 1534 | ||
| 7 Arts and sports | 365 | 2,5 | 1835 | 7,7 |
| 8 Belle-lettres, theory of literature | 2616 | 24,9 | 4188 | 17,5 |
| 9 History, geography | 339 | 2,3 | 1498 | 6,3 |
| History | 184 | 863 | ||
| Geography | 83 | 635 | ||
| TOTAL | 14 503 | 100 | 23 868 | 100 |
The most obvious tendency is the rise in publishing of practical, functional books and the decline in the publication of religious books and fiction. These two types formed nearly a half of the whole book production in the earlier centuries, while in 1918 - 1940 their share of the whole production was 23 per cent.
At the same time the share of books on social sciences, applied sciences, natural sciences, exact sciences, history, geography and arts increased considerably.
Political freedom and the founding of the independent state set new demands for printed matter. For the first time official publications, legal documents and statistical collections were published in Estonian. The share of political literature increased considerably as the democratic system of government brought along numerous publications of political parties. The great number of statutes (1615 titles) in the production was caused by the active founding of clubs and societies, which started already in the 19th century. Nearly 28 per cent of the publications on social sciences treat economics, the work of economic organizations as well as various economic issues.
Fiction still maintains quite a considerable place in the book production. Belle-lettres formed 17,5 per cent of the whole book-production in these years instead of the earlier share of 25 per cent. However, in absolute figures the publishing of fiction increased. The relative decrease in the share of belle-lettres can be observed in the book production of the majority of the European countries in the 20th century and is considered to be an attendant phenomenon of the scientific-technical progress.
More than a half of the belle-lettres (53,4 per cent) were the works by the Estonian authors. In 1924, 88,8 per cent of them were first editions, the corresponding figure being 83,3 per cent in 1928 and 81,7 per cent in 1938 (Uurimusi 1980, 49). The gradual increase of the share of reprints demonstrates the growth of the basic reserve of Estonian literature. Its reprints formed the classical part of the national literature.
The belle-lettres of the first years of independece were dominated by short genres - collections of poetry, short stories, stories. Interest in poetry and short prose diminished in the second half of the 1920s. This resulted in narrower publishing opportunities for short genres and considerable decrease in the print runs. The age of prose had begun - novels and longer stories dominated in the works of writers as well as in the book production. The outcrop of the novel was largerly due to the subsidies of the Fund for Furthering Culture, which enabled the writers to create longer works. The readers also favoured novels, which created better prerequisites for publishing. 20 - 25 novels and 5 -6 collections of stories by Estonian writers were issued each year in the 1930s. The collected works of some leading writers were also published, which required larged investments.
A relatively big share of translations (46,6 per cent of all literary works) is characteristic of other small European states as well. Before independence the educated readers orientated mainly on imported books in foreign languages. In the independent Estonia the majority of readers preferred books in Estonian to those in foreign languages.
The education in foreign languages was replaced by education in mother-tongue in the independent state. This lead to the formation of a learned class, which used the Estonian language. These intellectuals, who sprung from the Estonian language culture, naturally knew foreign languages, but still preferred to read the world literature in their mother-tongue.
The translations were mainly published in series. The best series were "The Nobel Prize Winners" (50 volumes, 1935-1939) by "Loodus", "World Literature" (1936-1940) by the Society of Estonian Literature and "The Novels of the Nordic Countries" (24 volumes, 1934-1940) by "Eesti Kirjastuse Kooperatiiv". Besides that, numerous series of light reading were issued. The books were mainly translated from English. 44 per cent of all the translated literary works in the second half of the 1930s were translated from English. The second place was occupied by translations from German and French (a 8 per cent)( Uurimusi 1980,45-49). The translation of German literature decreased before the Second World War. Translations from Russian were quite rare. Translating from Russian became more active at the end of the 1930s. Mainly the works of the Russian classics were translated rather than the works by contemporary authors.
The popularity of the literature of the Nordic countries could be expected. The translations of Finnish and Scandinavian literature formed 20 per cent of all the literary translations of this period. This was probably due to the similarities in lifestyle and way of thinking, the general orientation on Scandinavia and the spread of the Baltoscandia ideas in the 1930s.
More surprising was the important role of Polish literature among the translations. In addition to the numerous translations of the works by famous Polish writers W. Reymont, H. Sienkiewicz, many popular novels by modern Polish authors like Z. Nalkowska, E.S zelburg-Zarembina etc. were translated.
The traditional cultural contacts with Finland fostered the translation of Finnish literature. The numebr of translations of Finnish literature follows the translations from English, German and French literature and forms nearly 6 per cent of all literary translations (Uurimusi 1980, 45-46).
The value of the translations of fiction from Finnish cannot be compared with the world level. These books, as well as in the original language as in translated form, aquired additional value to the Estonian readers due to the closeness of the turn of mind and the customary world outlook, represented in them. In any case, the publishing houses did not form their programmes on the basis of kindred romanticism, but responded to the readers' constant interest in the literature of the neighbouring country (Annist 1939, 214-215).
The publication of the translations was complicated by the accession with the Berne convention of copyright in 1927. Estonia's cultural exchange was rather one-sided and the abidance by the convention caused serious financial difficulties to the Estonian publishers. It particularly limited the opportunities to publish modern literature (EKSi kiri 1927, 16-17).
The increase of the share of the literature on applied sciences from 8,9 per cent to 14,8 per cent of the whole book production came mainly on account of books on agriculture. The radical land reform in Estonia in the first years of independence brought many people in the farms, who had no experience of practical farming. This created a need for literature to teach and consult them. At the same time the Estonian agriculture was adjusted to the demands of the world market, which brought along certain difficulties of reorientation. These tendencies influenced the emergence of agricultural literature, which was issued by agricultural societies and associations as well as by the publishing house "Agronoom".
The majority of books on agriculture treat rational managing of the farms. Special attention was paid to the improvement of breed and dairy cattle husbandry. The herdbooks for cattle, pigs and other more important species were published regularly as well as surveys of the agricultural system in the USA, Denmark and other countries with highly developed agriculture. The publication of large handbooks and reference works started in the second half of the 1930s. "The Farmer's Handbook" in several volumes, "The Handbook of Practical Gardening and Apiculture" and 13 fascicles of "The Agricultural Encyclopaedia" were given out then. The agricultural experimental stations and reasearch centres, financed by the state, issued many practical and scientific series. The publication of books on agriculture was subsidised from the Fund for Furthering Culture and state budget.
The development of technical literature was hindered by Estonia's orientation on agriculture between the two world wars. Only the industrial rise in the middle of the 1930s and the founding of the Tallinn Technical University in 1936 gave an impulse to the publishing of the technical literature. Many general technical handbooks and textbooks were issued as well as technical glossaries. Still, technical literature formed only one per cent of the whole book production.
The share of philospophical literature diminished. However, it actually demonstrated "the liberation" of the Estonian book production from numerous "interpreters of dreams", "fortunetellers" etc., which were classified as "philosophy" in the 19th century. The philosophical literature in Estonian emerged only in independent Estonia. Mainly translations of well-known authors such as W. Jerusalem, W. James, H. Höffding were given out in the 1920s. This made some basic works of Western philosophy available to Estonian readers and created the basis of terminology in Estonian. The original philosophical literature began to form in the 1930s, with publishing of the works by professors of the Tartu University A. Koort, W. Freyman. K. Ramul, etc.
It is not easy to examine the changes in the structure and typology of the book production as the book statistics of earlier centuries did not include corresponding data. The synoptical data is presented only about textbooks (Antik 1936, 67).
Before independence, textbooks were issued mainly on languages and religion. Spelling books and reading books formed over a half of all the textbooks. Sacred histories and cathechisms helped to carry out religious instruction. Natural history and mathematics also occupied a noteworthy place. All the other subjects were treated on a lesser scale in the former public primary schools and only a few textbooks were issued on them.
Textbooks formed up to 20 per cent of the whole book production in the first years of independence. The significant role of textbooks can be explained by the transition to education in mother-tongue and changes of the social ideas and views, characteristic of revolutionary periods. This is inevitably accompanied by the substitution of former textbooks. Textbooks of the czarist period were unusable in independent Estonia for their contents and world outlook. It was necessary to replace them with new textbooks by Estonian authors. There were no Estonian-language textbooks for secondary schools and universities in Estonia in the earlier periods. The new textbooks were compiled by the best teachers and professors and they changed the contents of education.
Considerable changes took place also in the publishing of scientific literature. Scientific publications formed 2-3 per cent of the whole book-production in the first years of independence. A noticeable rise in publishing of scientific literature began in 1925 due to the enforcement of the Law on the Fund for Furthering Culture. Henceforth the number of scientific publications increased proportionally with the general growth of printed matter and stabilized approximately at around 7-8 per cent of the whole book-production. The growth of funding and the more intensive development of science resulted in further increase in the production of scientific literature at the end of the 1930s, when scientific publications made up over 10 per cent of the whole book production.
48,3 per cent of the scientific literature treated the humanities, 15,6 per cent - natural and exact sciences and 36,1 per cent - applied science (mainly agriculture and medicine). Technical sciences were represented by only a small amount of publications (Lott 1975). The division of scientific literature by contents corresponded to the general tendencies in the development of the Estonian science, characterized by the priority of the sciences treating Estonia.
The growth of the scientific potential at the end of the 1930s expresses itself in the increase of research works. The publication of information literature dominated in the 1920s, mainly statistical surveys, observation data, information on the work of scientistic establishments were published then. The share of research literature began to grow in the 1930s, the publication of research works formed 60 per cent of all the titles of scientific literature and 75 per cent of its volume in 1938. The number of highly educated Estonians had decupled by this time and there were relatively many reasearch workers, including internationally well-known scientists in Estonia.
Considerable number (around 30 per cent) of scientific literature was published in foreign languages. This fostered the exchange of publications and contacts with scientists from other countries.
The Estonian research institutes regularly exchanged their publications with foreign reaserach centres: The Tartu University had 330 exchange partners, the Estonian Learned Society - 250, the Society of Naturalists - 320.
The rise of the educational level of people, the growth of the number of students and the emergence of staff of researchers favoured the growth in publishing of popular science and reference literature.
The popular science literature won a firm position in the Estonian book production in the 1930s, forming 6 per cent of the whole production. Many books were published in series: "Living Science" was issued by the Estonian Literary Society with the help of the Fund for Furthering Culture in 1932-1940 and included over a hundred titles representing various scientific fields. The series acquired a permanent circle of readers and contained only books chosen and checked by experts. The books, issued in this series from the basis works of popular science literature in Estonian. 62 per cent of the publications were original works, half of which treated Estonian topics. Many of these books were actually original reasearches on Estonian material, for example, H. Helm "Brief History of the Estonian Literature", G. Ränk "The Folk-culture of Ancient Estonia".
The academic societies had an outstanding role in publishing reference literature. They compiled many highly important reference books and bibliographical editions.
The Estonian Learned Society together with other societies and research institutes issued the bibliography on humanities under the title "The Annual Review of Estonian Philology and History" (1918-1923, 1929-1931).
The Academic Historical Society compiled and published "The Bibliography of Estonian History" and prepared the manuscript of "The Estonian Biographic Lexicon", which was issued by the publishing house "Loodus".
The journal of the Estonian Literary Society "Estonian Literature" started to publish monthly lists of books issued in Estonia and in Estonian in 1924. They were all assembled in four volumes later, titled "The General Bibliography of Estonian Books". The fifth volume, which contained the publications from 1918-1923, was compiled retrospectively by R. Antik. Estonia had thus acquired a current national bibliography, which included books, brochures, maps, music printings, newspapers and journals and met all the requirements to this type of editions.
The greatest achievement in issuing reference literature was the publication of "The Estonian Encyclopaedia" in eight volumes. This was the first encyclopaedical reference work in Estonian, corresponding to the world standards. The part, which treats Estonia, is noticeable accomplishment of the Estonian science in the period of independence. The encyclopaedia includes 75 754 articles, maps and numerous pictures.
LITERATURE
Annist, A. (1939). Meie meie iseseisvusaegne tõlkeklassika ja Eesti Kirjanduse Selts. Eesti Kirjandus 5: 214 - 215.
Antik, R. (1936). Eesti raamat 1535-1935. Tartu : ERÜ .
EKSi kiri (1927). EKSi kiri Haridusministeeriumile berni konventsiooni asjus. KMKO f 16. M 84:2
Lott, M. (1975). Teaduskirjanduse väljaandmisest Eestis 1920.-1930.aastatel In: VII Eesti raamatuteaduse konverents : 24-27. Tartu.
Uurimusi (1980). Uurimusi eesti raamatu arenguloost. Tallinn: Tallinna Pedagoogiline Instituut.