VOLUME XV

Jonas Basanavičius Folklore Library, Vol. 15

Jonas Basanavičius. Collected Works: Essays, Reviews. Extracts of Autobiography and Notes, book 2.
Vilnius: Institute of Lithuanian Literature and Folklore, 2004

The last volume of Jonas Basanavičius Folklore Library starts with the study “On Lithuanian Folksongs”, which is presented exactly in the way it was first published in Polish (along with a modern day translation into Lithuanian) and in Ukrainian, which was also meant for the Russian readers. The purpose of this study was popularization of Lithuanian folksongs, displaying their originality and beauty to foreign people. The study is followed by a selection of folksongs published in periodicals, accompanied by personal commentaries from Basanavičius. This makes an entire chapter of reviews on Lithuanian folklore publications. The short review on a work by Adam Kirkor (1883) is particularly critical, because of the distorted picture of Lithuanian life and customs that the latter had presented. Other articles comprising this volume discuss works of the famous scholars like Fridrichas Kuršaitis, August Schleicher, Franz Tetzner and their merits to the Lithuanian culture; also, memoirs about Antanas Baranauskas, Kazimieras Jaunius and Adalbert Bezzenberger are included. Here the reader also finds the public addresses written by Basanavičius either to encourage people to collect folklore and other materials related to the Lithuanian past, or to clarify some more problematic instances of folklore development.
Basanavičius was intensely corresponding with numerous folklore collectors, researchers, and publishers. Quite a handful of these letters are published in this volume as well.
Some fragments from the autobiography by Basanavičius are included, in order to present deeper and more detailed picture of his folkloric activities. Related facts and messages could also be found in his notebooks, containing daily information about his routines.
The fifteenth volume of Jonas Basanavičius Folklore Library was compiled, its foreword and commentaries written, also indices of persons, mythical images, and folklore collectors were compiled by Leonardas Sauka. The editors of the volume are Kostas Aleksynas and Leonardas Sauka. Principles of textual editing were discussed by Kostas Aleksynas. The language editor and the compiler of the geographical index and the vocabulary is Vitas Agurkis.