Vladas Putvinskis

Vladas Putvinskis or Vladas Pūtvis (Reportedly, "Pūtvis" is the original Lithuanian surname of the family derived from the village that was a hillfort during the 14th-century Lithuanian Crusade.) He received amnesty in 1872, but was not allowed to return to Lithuania. Thus, he moved to Riga where he married Idalia Broel-Plater from the Plater family.

Fiction writer Influenced by Povilas Višinskis, Putvinkis tried his hand at writing. His firs short stories and articles were published in Varpas (1902–1904) and Darbininkų balsas (1902). Other stores were published in Vilniaus žinios (1914), Nauju taku (1914), Trimitas (1920s). He wrote in Lithuanian (except for one Polish story published in Slovo) even though by his own admission he was more comfortable expressing himself in Polish. In interwar Lithuania, he took Lithuanian language lessons from Julija Jablonskytė-Petkevičienė (daughter of linguist Jonas Jablonskis).

After his release from prison in 1906, he wrote Kudlių šeima (Kudliai Family), a short story that was published in a supplement of Lietuvos aidas in 1918. The story, written as a mythical legend, depicts a young noble shunned by his traditional family chasing a bright and elusive goddess (idea of the Lithuanian nation).

Another lengthier story Giedrė (completed in 1907) is also written as a legend from the Lithuanian mythology. It depicts a primitive but ideal society attacked by enemies clad in iron. The fight ends with a mass suicide in fire (references to the Lithuanian Crusade and Pilėnai). The work was published as a separate booklet in 1915 and 1927; it was republished in 2013. The work created and popularized the name Giedrė.