Kadilis Jānis (1903-1994), publisher, editor, journalist, librarian in the USA

Literary critic and book publisher Kadilis Jānis was born on January 16, 1903 in Kraukļi, Stāmeriena parish, in the family of a farm worker.

Studied at the parish school (1911 - 1916), Alūksne folk high school and real school (1916 - 1919), Cesvaine gymnasium (1919 - 1921). Graduated from the Department of Economics of the Faculty of Economics and Law of the University of Latvia (1933).

He worked as a teacher in Vecgulbene (1921-1923), in the French lyceum in Riga (1923-1937 and 1940-1941). He was the editor of the magazine "Daugava" (1938 - 1940) and the deputy director of the joint stock company "Valters un Rapa". 1942 Kadilis founded his own book supply and published about 50 books on fiction and art (1942-1944 and Germany 1947-1950).
1944 emigrated to Germany, lived in Würzburg, then in Eslingen. He was the co-editor of the monthly "Ceļš" (1945 - 1946), a playwright at the Eslingen Latvian Theater, a critic and a contributor to the newspaper "Latviešu Ziņas". Kadilis has published the "Latvian Book of the Year" (1947-1950), a selection of P. Schmidt's fairy tales, a selection of songs by K. Barons, and a selection of Latvian short stories (1-2, 1947).

1950 traveled to the United States, was a Russian language lecturer at Syracuse University in New York, and studied library. He graduated from Columbia University in New York with a master's degree (1956). He has worked as a librarian in New York and Washington. He served on the board of the American Latvian Association, the Cultural Bureau (1956-1959) and the Cultural Foundation (1956-1963). Has been working in literary criticism since 1930. The first reviews were published in the magazine "Burtnieks", "Latvju Kirjan", "Piesaule" and "Daugava". He has written the most about the younger generation of poets of the 1930s. He has written extensive reflections on Latvian and non-Latvian writers, and is especially familiar with French literature. Co-author of "History of Latvian Literature" edited by L. Bērziņš. The most significant work is "Writers and Books" (1949) - essays and reflections on J. Raini, K. Skalbe, J. Vesel, Anšlavs Eglīte and French literature. He has also written poems and stories. Some of them are included in the collection of lyrical miniatures. "Insignificant Self-Conversation" (1948). Pseudonym - J. Atvars.

He died on April 14, 1994 in Washington, DC.

The list of information source can be found here .