About August Ahlqvist
Karl August Engelbrekt Ahlqvist, who wrote as A. Oksanen (7 August 1826 – 20 November 1889), was a Finnish professor, poet, scholar of the Finno-Ugric languages, author, and literary critic. He served as professor of Finnish language and literature at the Imperial Alexander University (now University of Helsinki) from 1863 as the successor to Elias Lönnrot, and as the university's rector from 1884 to 1887. Ahlqvist is regarded as one of the founders of Finno-Ugric studies alongside Matthias Alexander Castrén, and as a poet under the pen name A. Oksanen he introduced several new verse forms into Finnish-language poetry. He is also remembered as the sharpest critic of the writer Aleksis Kivi, who later rose to the position of the national author of Finland. == Biography == === Background and studies === Ahlqvist was born in Kuopio as the illegitimate child of Maria Augusta Ahlqvist (1806–1886), a servant. His father was Johan Mauritz Nordenstam (1802–1882), then an ensign and later a general, baron and vice-chancellor of the university; the paternity was widely known, and Nordenstam supported his son financially. While at school in Kuopio, Ahlqvist came under the mentorship of Johan Vilhelm Snellman, who became the school's headmaster in 1843. Ahlqvist began publishing Finnish translations of poetry in Snellman's Swedish-language journal Saima, and translated Ludvig Stoud Platou's geography textbook into Finnish under the title Geografia eli maan opas – the first Finnish-language geography textbook, in which Ahlqvist coined Finnish words for globe, polar circle, equator and colony. He became a student at the Imperial Alexander University in 1844, completing his Candidate of Philosophy degree in 1853 and his Licentiate of Philosophy in 1854. He was appointed docent in Finnish in 1859 and, succeeding Elias Lönnrot, professor of Finnish language and literature in 1863.
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