Mika Waltari

Mika Toimi Waltari was born on September 19, 1908, in Helsinki. Emerging as the leader of the modernist literary group Tulenkantajat (The Torchbearers), he absorbed French bohemianism in Paris, penning energetic urban novels like Suuri illusioni (The Great Illusion, 1928).

Written in a feverish, visionary trance of four months during the aftermath of World War II, his 1945 historical masterpiece Sinuhe egyptiläinen (The Egyptian) reconstructed the reign of Pharaoh Akhenaten with astonishing archaeological accuracy and philosophical melancholy. Translated into forty languages, it topped American bestseller lists for months and was adapted into a 20th Century Fox film in 1954. He followed with brilliant historical epics including The Adventurer and The Roman.