Aleksandras Fromas-Gužutis, Date of Birth, Place of Birth, Date of Death

Aleksandras Fromas-Gužutis

Date of Birth: 12-Dec-1822

Place of Birth: Raseiniai, Kaunas County, Lithuania

Date of Death: 21-Aug-1900

Profession: writer, translator

Zodiac Sign: Sagittarius

Aleksandras Fromas known by his pen name Gužutis (1822–1900) was a Lithuanian writer, one of the first authors of Lithuanian plays and dramas.
Born to a family of an office worker, Fromas received some education at the Kražiai College.
He worked in various government offices until he purchased a farm in 1853 where he lived and worked until his death.
Encouraged by his neighbor Mecislovas Davainis-Silvestraitis, Fromas began publishing his texts in the Lithuanian press in 1884.
While he wrote three novels, some short stories, and poems, he is mostly known as the author of the first Lithuanian plays.
Thirteen plays are known; four of them were published during his lifetime.
Most of the plays deal with heroic and romanticized episodes from the old Grand Duchy of Lithuania.
Other plays transformed traditional Lithuanian myths, including Egle the Queen of Serpents and Jurate and Kastytis, into literary dramas and dealt with realities of the 19th-century Lithuania, including the abolition of serfdom in 1861 and the Uprising of 1863.
While the works are not noted for their literary merits, they become popular with the emerging Lithuanian amateur theater and had a strong influence on future writers and theater performers.