Author: Jānis Rainis
Alternate names: Jānis Rainis; Janis Rainis
Born: 11 September 1865
Died: 12 September 1929
Bio: Rainis was the pseudonym of Jānis Pliekšāns, a Latvian poet, playwright, translator, and politician. Rainis' works include the classic plays Uguns un nakts (Fire and Night, 1905) and Indulis un Ārija (Indulis and Ārija, 1911), and a highly regarded translation of Goethe's Faust. His works had a profound influence on the literary Latvian language, and the ethnic symbolism he employed in his major works has been central to Latvian nationalism.