Sofija Pšibiliauskienė ''

née The birth name is the name of the person given upon their birth. The term may be applied to the surname, the given name or to the entire name. Where births are required to be officially registered, the entire name entered onto a births registe ...

'' Ivanauskaitė (; September 16, 1867 in Paragiai, Shavelsky Uyezd,

Kovno Governorate Kovno Governorate was an administrative-territorial unit (''guberniya'') of the Russian Empire, with its capital in Kovno (Kaunas). It was formed on 18 December 1842 by Tsar Nicholas I of Russia, Nicholas I from the western part of Vilna Govern ...

– March 15, 1926 in Paragiai) and

Marija Lastauskienė Marija Lastauskienė ''née'' Ivanauskaitė () (15 May 1872 in Šiauliai – 19 July 1957 in Kaunas) and her sister Sofija Pšibiliauskienė were Lithuanian sisters who wrote under the shared pen name '' Lazdynų Pelėda'' (''Hazel Owl''). Marija ...

were two

Lithuania Lithuania, officially the Republic of Lithuania, is a country in the Baltic region of Europe. It is one of three Baltic states and lies on the eastern shore of the Baltic Sea, bordered by Latvia to the north, Belarus to the east and south, P ...

n sister writers of

Polish Polish may refer to: * Anything from or related to Poland, a country in Europe * Polish language * Polish people, people from Poland or of Polish descent * Polish chicken * Polish brothers (Mark Polish and Michael Polish, born 1970), American twin ...

origin, using the same

pen name A pen name or nom-de-plume is a pseudonym (or, in some cases, a variant form of a real name) adopted by an author and printed on the title page or by-line of their works in place of their real name. A pen name may be used to make the author's na ...

Lazdynų Pelėda Lazdynų Pelėda (literally: ''Hazelnut Owl'') was the common pen name of two Lithuanian sisters writers: Sofija Ivanauskaitė-Pšibiliauskienė (1867–1926) and Marija Ivanauskaitė-Lastauskienė (1872–1957), who were individually mostly k ...

'' (''

Hazel Hazels are plants of the genus ''Corylus'' of deciduous trees and large shrubs native to the temperate Northern Hemisphere. The genus is usually placed in the birch family, Betulaceae,Germplasmgobills Information Network''Corylus''Rushforth, K ...

Owl Owls are birds from the order Strigiformes (), which includes over 200 species of mostly solitary and nocturnal birds of prey typified by an upright stance, a large, broad head, binocular vision, binaural hearing, sharp talons, and feathers a ...

'').

Biography

Pšibiliauskienė was born to an impractical painter of Polish–Lithuanian nobility stock. Pšibiliauskienė did not have formal education and self-educated reading various sentimental novels by Polish authors. In 1891, she married their neighbor landowner Rapolas Pšibiliauskas (), but the marriage was not happy. In 1903, with two small children, Pšibiliauskienė moved out to

Vilnius Vilnius ( , ) is the capital of and List of cities in Lithuania#Cities, largest city in Lithuania and the List of cities in the Baltic states by population, most-populous city in the Baltic states. The city's estimated January 2025 population w ...

. She took random jobs as a bookstore saleswoman, seamstress, pharmacy assistant, but still barely managed to avoid poverty. In 1914, she moved to

Kaunas Kaunas (; ) is the second-largest city in Lithuania after Vilnius, the fourth largest List of cities in the Baltic states by population, city in the Baltic States and an important centre of Lithuanian economic, academic, and cultural life. Kaun ...

, where she fell ill with

tuberculosis Tuberculosis (TB), also known colloquially as the "white death", or historically as consumption, is a contagious disease usually caused by ''Mycobacterium tuberculosis'' (MTB) bacteria. Tuberculosis generally affects the lungs, but it can al ...

. She then returned to her childhood home in Paragiai, where she died in 1926. Since 1966, a museum is established in her former farmstead. In 1993, a monument to the sisters was erected in

(sculptor

Dalia Matulaitė Dalia may refer to: People * Dalia (given name), a given name and listing of people with the name * Dalia (Egyptian singer), of album ''Bahebak enta'' 1998 * Badrunnesa Dalia, Bengali singer known as Dalia Places * Dalia (oil field), an offshor ...

, architects Jūras Balkevičius and

Rimantas Buivydas Rimantas (shortened as Rimas) is a masculine Lithuanian given name. The feminine form of the name is Rimantė. Notable people with the name include: *Rimantas Astrauskas (b. 1955), physicist, ecologist, and signatory of the 1990 Act * Rimantas Jon ...

Works

Pšibiliauskienė started writing after encouragement from

Povilas Višinskis Povilas Višinskis (; 28 June 1875 – 23 April 1906) was a Lithuanian cultural and political activist during the Lithuanian National Revival. He is best remembered as a mentor of literary talent. He discovered Julija Žymantienė (Žemaitė) and ...

in 1898. She first contributed to various Lithuanian periodicals, including ''

Varpas ''Varpas'' (literally: ''The Bell'') was a monthly Lithuanian-language newspaper published during the Lithuanian press ban from January 1889 to December 1905. Because its publication was illegal in Lithuania, then part of the Russian Empire, it w ...

'' and ''

Ūkininkas ''Ūkininkas'' or ''Ukinįkas'' (literally: ''The Farmer'') was a monthly Lithuanian-language newspaper published during the Lithuanian press ban by the editorial staff of ''Varpas'' from 1890 to 1905. ''Ūkininkas'' was printed in Tilsit (current ...

''. After separating from her husband and moving to Vilnius, she could spend more time writing. Her early works depict struggle between landless peasants and corrupt landowners. In short stories ''Klajūnas'' (''The Wonderer'', 1902) and ''Stebuklingoji tošelė'' (''The Magic Reed-Pipe'', 1907) Pšibiliauskienė, in a

didactic Didacticism is a philosophy that emphasises instructional and informative qualities in literature, art, and design. In art, design, architecture, and landscape, didacticism is a conceptual approach that is driven by the urgent need to explain. ...

tone, wrote how peasants were exploited and morally degraded by lazy and selfish estate owners. Most of her characters were oppressed by misfortunes, social injustice, and their own flaws. Her ambitious work, novella ''Klaida'' (''Mistake'', 1908), attempted to analyze and criticize the period leading to the

Russian Revolution of 1905 The Russian Revolution of 1905, also known as the First Russian Revolution, was a revolution in the Russian Empire which began on 22 January 1905 and led to the establishment of a constitutional monarchy under the Russian Constitution of 1906, t ...

(between 1890 and 1905), but failed to explain deeper causes of the revolution. In 1907, her sister Marija Lastauskienė also moved to Vilnius. Encouraged by Pšibiliauskienė, Lastauskienė would write in Polish, her sister would translate and edit the works, and publish them under the pen name ''

''. It is unclear how many of the works published between 1905 (the first time the pen name was used) and 1927 (Sofija's death) should be attributed to Lastauskienė and how much of the original work remained after Pšibiliauskienė's edits. The public did not know that there are two people writing under the same name. Literary critics tend to treat this body of works as one item as they are similar in themes and language.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Psibiliauskiene, Sofija 1867 births 1926 deaths People from Akmenė District Municipality People from Shavelsky Uyezd Lithuanian people of Polish descent Polish women writers 19th-century Lithuanian women writers 19th-century Lithuanian writers Pseudonymous women writers 19th-century pseudonymous writers