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<mask>. (born December 8, 1926) is a retired United States Army officer. He led the Eighth Army Ranger Company during the Korean War and was awarded the Distinguished Service Cross for his actions on November 25, 1950, when his company of 51 Rangers was attacked by several hundred Chinese soldiers at the battle for Hill 205. He later served in the Vietnam War and retired from the army in 1971 as a colonel. After being appointed on July 19, 1996, he has served as the Honorary Colonel of the 75th Ranger Regiment and is frequently in demand as a public speaker for military ceremonies. In April 2021, <mask>'s Distinguished Service Cross for his actions on November 25, 1950 was upgraded to the Medal of Honor. He received the award from President Joe Biden during a ceremony at the White House on May 21, 2021. Military career
<mask> served in the Army Enlisted Reserve Corps from 1943 to 1945.In 1949, <mask> graduated from the United States Military Academy (where he captained the Army Boxing Team), was commissioned as an Infantry second lieutenant, deployed to Japan, and immediately volunteered to be assigned with the Rangers. When he was informed that there were no more lieutenant positions in the 8th Army Ranger Company, he said that he would "take a squad leader's or rifleman's job"; positions several grades lower than a lieutenant's. Colonel McGee, who was in charge of forming the company, was so impressed by <mask>'s attitude that he gave him the company commander's position; a position normally reserved for captains. On 11 October 1950, the Eighth Army Ranger Company entered the Korean War, conducting raids during both daylight and night time conditions. Hill 205

On 25 November 1950, <mask> and his company captured and held Hill 205, a strategic point overlooking the Chongchon River. Initially, they had to brace for attack from all sides, as the company of only 51 strong was over a mile from the nearest friendly unit and vulnerable to being completely surrounded. Earlier in the evening, <mask> had coordinated a series of increasingly more dangerous fire missions with the artillery, in order for the Rangers to have artillery support to rapidly adjust to new attacks.At 10pm, the Chinese began their attack by firing a mortar salvo against <mask> and his Rangers. Six waves of Chinese forces assaulted the hill for the next four and a half hours. Several times, <mask> was forced to call in artillery fire "danger close", placing the Rangers within the danger radius of the friendly artillery. During the course of the battle, he was wounded several times, once by grenade fragments and then twice more when two mortars landed in his fox hole. After his wounds rendered him barely conscious, <mask> ordered his Rangers to leave him behind and abandon the position. Two of <mask>'s Rangers, Privates First Class David L. Pollock and Billy G. Walls, ignored his orders and initially carried him and subsequently dragged him down the hill as they received ineffective small arms fire. <mask> was medically evacuated from the hill and would be hospitalized for a year due to the wounds he suffered that night.After Korea
Following the Korean War, <mask> served over two years in the U.S. Army Infantry School Ranger Department as commander of the Mountain Ranger Division. As the first Ranger Advisor in the U.S. Army Mission to Colombia, he planned and established the Colombian Army Escuela de Lanceros (Ranger School). Later, he commanded "B" and "C" teams in the 10th Special Forces Group in Germany. In 1967, then-Lieutenant Colonel <mask> commanded the 2d Battalion, 502d Infantry (Airborne) of the 101st Airborne Division in Vietnam. He was awarded a second Distinguished Service Cross for heroic leadership in August 1967. During a dire, night-long defense near Chu Lai, he inspired his soldiers, who rallied to repel the attacking North Vietnamese. A rifle platoon leader preparing for a "last stand" recalled Colonel <mask>'s effect on the nearly exhausted soldiers: "... word of Colonel <mask>'s arrival spread like wildfire.We all stiffened up and felt that nothing bad could happen now because the Ranger was with us." Medal of Honor citation

Retirement

Colonel <mask> retired in 1971 after 22 years of active duty to become the national programs coordinator of Outward Bound, Inc. He subsequently established leadership and teamwork development program Discovery, Inc.  After several years of successful leadership at Discovery, Inc. in Herndon, Virginia, <mask> moved to Atlanta and began the Discovery Program at The Westminster Schools, which became known nationally in the adventure education community. In 1984, he became the executive vice president of MicroBilt, Inc., a soft- and hardware computer company. He has continued to be very active in military affairs, and the Ranger School. <mask> was an inaugural inductee into the U.S. Army Ranger Hall of Fame in 1992. He served as the Honorary Colonel for the 75th Ranger Regiment from 1996 to 2006 for which he was awarded the Distinguished Civilian Service Award.He speaks often at graduations and other functions at Fort Benning and is an Honorary Instructor at The Infantry School. He was inducted into the Order of St. Maurice in 1998, and was the 1998 Ranger of the Year for the Ranger Infantry Companies of the Korean War. He was inducted into the USAF Gathering of Eagles in 1999. He was added to the Tifton, Georgia, Wall of Fame in 2004. Other honors include appointment as an Ambassador of Goodwill by the Western Hemisphere Institute for Security Cooperation, selection as a Distinguished Graduate of the United States Military Academy in 2004, and selection as the Infantry's Doughboy Award recipient in 2007. He is the author of Words for Warriors: A Professional Soldier's Notebook and numerous media articles. <mask> lives in Columbus, Georgia, with his wife Jean (née Martin).They have two daughters (Jean and Martha), one son (Thomas), and six grandchildren. Awards and decorations

Other awards
Order of Saint Maurice (Primicerius)

<mask> also earned 3 Overseas Service Bars, the 101st Airborne Division Combat Service Identification Badge, the Eighth Army Shoulder sleeve insignia, the Army Staff Identification Badge and the 75th Ranger Regiment Distinctive unit insignia. Legacy
Colonel <mask> Parkway, a stretch of First Division and Dixie roads running from the end of I-185 to Sightseeing Road on Fort Benning, was dedicated on 8 June 2012. Colonel <mask> is the namesake of the Colonel <mask> Leadership Award series. The first award is a competition to identify a junior officer in the Ranger Regiment who sticks out amongst his peers for his take-charge attitude. The contest extends over three days and nights and consists of several different physical fitness tests, weapons firing, military skills, essay preparation, and appearance before a board of officers and senior non-commissioned officers. The winner of the award is considered by the Regiment as the entry in the Army-wide MacArthur Award competition.The second award is presented to the Officer Honor Graduate at the U.S. Army Ranger Course. The recipient of this award performs successfully in each leadership position, completes the demanding Ranger Course without repeating any phase, and was acclaimed by his peers. The third award is presented to an officer in the Maneuver Captains Career Course who displayed exceptional leadership and exhibits exemplary physical condition, consistent high academic standing, and served in a leadership position. References

United States Army Rangers
United States Army colonels
United States Military Academy alumni
United States Army Medal of Honor recipients
Korean War recipients of the Medal of Honor
Recipients of the Distinguished Service Cross (United States)
Recipients of the Silver Star
Recipients of the Legion of Merit
Recipients of the Air Medal
Recipients of the Order of Saint Maurice
1926 births
Living people
People from Columbus, Georgia
People from Tifton, Georgia
Military personnel from Georgia (U.S. state)
United States Army personnel of the Korean War
United States Army reservists
Recipients of the Gallantry Cross (Vietnam)

masks:
Ralph Puckett Jr
Puckett
Puckett
Puckett
Puckett
Puckett
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<mask> (19 November 1881 – 20 February 1952) was born in Australia of Scottish descent and is best known for dedicating his life towards creating and sustaining the Phyllis Court Club and its emerging role in the Henley Royal Regatta from 1906 to 1937. Life and works
<mask> was born in Woollahra in 1881, the elder son of <mask> and Laura Mary Gedye. At the age of 14, <mask> emigrated with the rest of the family to live with their grandfather in London. In 1901, the <mask>s purchased a portion of the Bolney Estate in Shiplake, where they constructed five residential houses, laying part of the estate over to fruit farming with orchards and glass-houses. <mask> moved into one of the houses (Trevone) but the life of a fruit farmer was not to be for him. Phyllis Court Club
In 1905, <mask> noticed a "To Let" hoarding on the river bank at Phyllis Court, a substantial mansion that enclosed a significant length of the shore of the River Thames adjacent to the finish line of the Henley Royal Regatta. He persuaded his father to underwrite the purchase of a lease on the property and to establish the creation of a sporting club, which <mask> would manage in his father's name.The family agreed to the plan and on June 7, 1905 a celebration was held and the club was born. Over the next few years, <mask> devoted his life to refurbishing the house to make Phyllis Court stand out as a venue for the week of the Henley Regatta and to establish it as part of the London Season. Landowners, society courtiers, military officers and racing-men flocked to the club, with applications greatly exceeding the allocation of places, which said as much about the personal charm and charisma of <mask> as it did about his business sense and attention to detail. The promise of strong returns encouraged <mask> to offer debentures for members to underwrite enlarging the business whilst taking much of the running of the Club upon himself, aged just 23. A Founder's Committee was installed to improve governance by giving some control back to members, and in 1907, a full-time secretary was appointed. The robustness of the new governance structure was put to the test in 1910 when <mask> became gravely ill from typhoid, putting him out of action for the entire summer season. With <mask> absent, the committee made key changes to the club's revenue stream reducing the club to the brink of bankruptcy.<mask> slowly recovered his health in October and took immediate corrective action, sacking the secretary and inviting the entire committee to resign before dissolving it. He spent the next three years successfully tackling the huge debt, managing creditors, recovering the damaged reputation of the Club and, reclaiming his own health as well as restoring the Club back to profit. First World War
<mask>, who saw himself as Australian, had been attending Army camp for two weeks every year as a reservist for the King's Colonials since 1903. In 1911, the regiment became King Edward's Horse and in 1913, <mask> was placed on the reserve's list and received orders to hold himself in readiness in August 1914. The Phyllis Court Club was only eight years old when <mask> was compelled to wind down activities, handing over the day-to-day running of the Club in 1914 to the care of his sister Mimi Burke in Shiplake (photograph right) and a skeleton administrative staff at Henley composed mostly of women. In November, <mask> was assigned to the Western Front and, ill-prepared as he was for action, he adapted fast. By January 1915, he was held back behind the lines as a cavalry officer, training for a long-awaited big assault.There was talk of the Regiment being transferred to Egypt, which <mask> favoured over a promotion in Kitchener's Army in the trenches, but it wasn't long before he joined his brother Alan back in the trenches at Ypres. Such was <mask>'s devotion to Phyllis Court that he managed the Club remotely throughout the war. In 1916, he returned to England ferrying fresh troops across the channel to France in a series of "torpedo runs" and in 1917, when the Regiment disbanded, transferred to the General Staff in Norfolk as a temporary captain in the 1st Mounted Division of the Norfolk home guard, making it much easier for him to direct affairs at Henley. In 1918, however, he returned to the Front working with intelligence in support of Edmund Ironside attached to Kitchener's Army as part of the 11th Battalion of the Essex Regiment. <mask>'s concerns about joining Kitchener's Army were realised when on the 14th September during the Hundred Days Offensive on the Hindenberg Line, burnt from a gas shell explosion and suffering from chlorine inhalation as well as temporary blindness, he was transferred back to England to see out the rest of the War recovering from his injuries. He continued to conduct meetings for the administration of Phyllis Court from his hospital bed until he was released from hospital and the Armistice was signed. <mask> was able to return to Henley the following month.Between the Wars
By January 1919, <mask> reconstituted a General Committee at Phyllis Court replacing the former Founder's Committee, installing himself as managing director and secretary of the club. Mindful of the horrors of the previous four years, <mask> tentatively launched the new season in May 1919. To his surprise, the austerity of war had been replaced by a wave of pre-war nostalgia: for the Henley Royal Regatta, with Phyllis Court once again centre-stage. By July, 400 new members had signed up creating excellent cash-flow over the summer, which convinced <mask> to renew the leases for a further twenty-one years. <mask> launched Phyllis Court in the 1920s as a sports club, with a busy sporting calendar of International Tennis tournaments as well as restoring the Henley Royal Regatta to an athletic rowing event. But the club is best remembered for exemplifying the social context of the Roaring Twenties, the Jazz Age with parties, balls, music, dining but above all - dancing. "There will be dances at Phyllis Court after lunch, dances between races, dances after tea, dances after dinner, and a great Gala ball on Saturday night".Phyllis Court catered for the elitist hedonism of an age, ceding the athletic integrity of the Regatta to the stewards, who had been banished to an enclosure on the opposite bank to Phyllis Court. This inevitably led to a rivalry between sporting and social activities around Henley Week, which permeates the Regatta today. <mask> had captured the mood of the age by placing the emphasis on social entertainment to the point of irreverence but he always maintained its elitist exclusivity, drawing on the London Season to ensure that the Club didn't only depend on Henley Week for revenue. In 1924, the socially popular Prince of Wales accepted the role of patron to the club, which guaranteed continued society membership, as "the most exclusive river-side club in the world". But <mask> did not exclude those like himself who had served their country at the front as well as service clubs around the colonies, placing his own rank as the minimum entry qualification.The Club had become so successful that <mask> was able to buy the freehold to Phyllis Court in 1929, which he celebrated by granting, with typical generosity, a 50-year lease of the property to the members. Shortly afterwards, the Wall Street crash halted any further development to buildings but the club's activities did not slow down, as "Phyllis" had become as much of a national institution as any of the Royal fixtures. Legacy
<mask> took steps to ensure the financial security of the club during the depression.In 1933, he stepped down as managing director and honorary secretary of the Club in favour of his adopted son, Jack Rendle-Mervill and three years later, <mask> proposed selling Phyllis Court to its members, prompting the Henley Standard to write “To people of this neighbourhood who have known Phyllis Court under the suzerainty of Captain <mask> ever since they can remember anything at all, the change will come rather as the passing of a milestone." The Phyllis Court Club transitioned from a proprietary club to a member's club in 1937. <mask> moved out of Phyllis Court for the last time in 1937, returning to his former home, Trevone, in Shiplake, which he had significantly expanded and renamed Bolney Trevor, where he remained through the Second World War. <mask>'s last substantial offering to the club was to underwrite the cost of transfer to a members club, which gave him lingering voting rights. <mask>'s devotion to the Club showed in every detail of his involvement in creating the club and fronting its development. The Club bought out all of <mask>'s voting rights in 1946 removing any control he had on its further development. Captain <mask> died aged 70 at his home on 20 February 1952.In his last will and testament, <mask> asked that his "ashes be strewn over the lawns of Phyllis Court". References

Bibliography
Jason Tomes - 2012, "Phyllis Court – Club and Manor", published by Phyllis Court Members Club Ltd, 2012, USBN 978-0-9573229-0-5

External links
 https://www.phylliscourt.co.uk

1881 births
1952 deaths
Essex Regiment officers
British Army personnel of World War I
Australian emigrants to England
Organization founders

masks:
Roy Finlay
Reginald Gedye Finlay
Reginald Edmund Alexander Finlay
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<mask> (born October 17, 1954 in Harrison, New York)  is one of America's leading high altitude mountaineers. <mask>'s specialty is high-standard mountaineering characterized by small teams, no oxygen, minimal gear and equipment, and relatively low amounts of funding; yielding first ascents of  difficult routes in challenging conditions, such as the Himalayan winter season. <mask> is a graduate of The Putney School and is a 1978 graduate of the Huxley College of the Environment, Western Washington University. He is a recipient of the university's Distinguished Alumni Award, and currently resides in Canmore, Alberta, Canada. He has two children. Notable ascents
 1977 North Face, Mount Temple (Alberta), Canadian Rockies, Canada. First winter ascent of face with Phil Hein (Canada).January, 1977. 1977 Super Couloir (North Face), Deltaform Mountain, Canadian Rockies, Canada. First winter ascent of face with Mark Whalen (Canada). February, 1977. 1977 West Face, Extremo (Huayna) Ausangate, Cordillera Blanca, Peru. First ascent of face with Lorenzo Ortas (Spain). June, 1977.1980 East Ridge, Baruntse, Barun Valley, Himalaya, Nepal. New route and 2nd ascent with Lorenzo Ortas, Javier Escartin, and Jeronimo Lopez (all Spain). April 27, 1980. Gonzalo Prado and Lhakpa Dorje Sherpa reached summit next day. 1981 South Face to East Ridge Traverse, Obispo, East Ridge to West Ridge Traverse, Fraile Grande, El Altar, Sangay National Park, Ecuador, with (Obispo) David Jones (America). November, 1981 and (Fraile Grande) Michael Orr (Great Britain). December 1981.1983 Kangshung Face, Mount Everest, Himalaya, Nepal/Tibet. First ascent of face and route with Kim Momb and Louis Reichardt (both America). October 8, 1983. George Lowe, Dan Reid and Jay Cassell (all America) reached summit next day. 1984 French Route, South Face, Aconcagua, Principal Cordillera, Andes, with Sharon Wood (Canada), December 17-22, 1984. 1985 Southern Cross, Anqosh (North) Face, Huascarán Sur, Cordillera Blanca, Peru. First ascent of route with Sharon Wood (Canada), July 24-29, 1985.1985 Northeast Face, Ama Dablam, Himalaya, Nepal. First ascent of face and route with Michael Kennedy (America), Dec 1-7, 1985. 1987 | East Face, Pumasillo, Southeast Face, Mellizos, Vilcabamba mountain range, Andes, Peru. First ascent of both faces with Paul Harris (Great Britain). August 23-29, 1987. 1988 Northwest Face/North Ridge, Kangchenjunga, Himalaya, Nepal. First American ascent with Peter Habeler (Austria) and Martin Zabaleta (Spain/Basque).May 3, 1988. 1989 West (Polish) Ridge, Cho Oyu, Himalaya, Tibet/Nepal. First alpine style ascent with Martin Zabaleta (Spain/Basque). April 8, 1989. 1990 Northeast Ridge, Dhaulagiri, Himalaya, Nepal. Summit reached with Nuru Sherpa (Nepal) and Dainius Makauskas (Lithuania), October 31, 1990. Makauskas disappeared on the descent.<mask> and Nuru Sherpa suffered severe frostbite. 1992 West Ridge, Dorje Lhakpa or Dorje Lakpa, Jugal Himal, Himalaya, Nepal. First solo ascent. April 12–13, 1992. 1996 West Ridge, Mount Miller, Saint Elias Mountains, Alaska USA. First ascent with Charles Sassara, Paul Claus (both America), Ruedi Homberger, Reto Ruesh (both Switzerland), April 12, 1996. 1996 North Ridge, K2, Karakoram, China/Pakistan.Russian American ascent. Summit reached with Sergei Penzov and Igor Benkin (both Russia), August 14, 1996. Benkin died on the descent.Togliatti K2 Russian Project
 1997 East Buttress, University Peak, Wrangell Mountains, Alaska USA. New route with Charles Sassara (America), April 29-May 5, 1997. 1997 Diamir Face, Nanga Parbat, Himalaya, Pakistan. First Russian and second American Ascent. Summit reached with Ivan Dusharin (Russia), July 14, 1997.Viktor Kolishnichenko and Andrei Volkov (both Russia) reached the summit on July 18, 1997.Seven Stones from Nanga Parbat
1998 The Lightning Route (VII 5.9 A4 WI4, 1580m), North Face of Changabang, Garhwal Himalaya, India. New route with  Andrei Volkov, Andrei Mariev, Ivan Dusharin and Pavel Shabalin (all Russia). April 16 - June 6, 1998. 1998 North Face, Peak Babuchka ca. (5220 meters), West Face, Peak Carnovsky ca. 4700 meters, Kakshaal Too (West Kokshal Tau), Central Tian-Shan, Kyrgyzstan, New routes with (Babuchka) Mark Price and Christian Beckwith (both America), July 7-8 and (Carnovsky) Mark Price, July 26-27, 1998. 1999 West Face, Siula Grande, (6344 meters), Cordillera Huayhuash, Andes, Peru.New route Avoiding the Touch with Mark Price (America), June 16, 1999. 1999 East Face Milarepa, 6262 meters, Rolwaling Himal, Himalaya, Nepal. First ascent with Mark Price (America), October 11-13, 1999. 2000 Northwest Face, Kampur (5499 meters), Ishkoman Valley, Hindu Raj, Gilgit-Baltistan, Pakistan, First Ascent with Ivan Dusharin (Russia), August 4-5, 2000. 2002 West Thong Wok Glacier, Sepu Kangri, Nyenchen Tanglha Mountains, Eastern Tibet, First ascent with Mark Newcomb (America). October 2, 2002. 2003 East Face, Gunnar Naslund (3858 meters), Saint Elias Mountains, Wrangell-St. Elias National Park, Alaska, New route with Glenn Dunmire (America).April 26-27, 2003. 2003 West Face, Pucajirca North I, Cordillera Blanca, Andes, Peru, New route with Thaddeus Josephson (America). July 21–28, 2003. 2006 Northeast Face, Quesillo (5600 meters), Cordillera Huayhuash, Andes, Peru, New route with Brad Johnson (America), July 13-15, 2006. 2008 East Face, Cerro Castillo, Aysén Region Andes, Chilean Patagonia. New route with Joan Sole Rovirosa (Spain). October 6–9, 2008.

Notable events
Fulfilled dying wish of Russian composer, Alexander Scriabin, to have his last composition, Mysterium'', performed in the Himalaya (at Menlungtse/Milarepa Base Camp, Tibet).Selected by the American Alpine Club at age 23 to join the high-profile 1978 Soviet-American team to climb in the Pamir Range of Tajikistan in Central Asia. Honors
1988 Mugs Stump Award, first year awarded. (Award honors “climbers attempting alpine climbing objectives that exemplify fast, light and clean tactics.”)
1988 American Mountain Foundation Award, for 1st American ascent of Kangchenjunga, world’s 3rd highest mountain. 1994 Mugs Stump Award for the West Face of K2. 1999 Mugs Stump Award for Menlungtse/Milarepa. 2001 Polartec Challenge Award, for “vision, commitment, credibility and respect for the local culture and environment [which] serve as role models to outdoor enthusiasts worldwide.”
2002 Ranked “Best of the Best”, and only American among the top four international high altitude climbers, by Everestnews.com. (2002 was the last year ranking was compiled.)2003 Western Washington University, Distinguished Alumni Award. 2004 Lyman Spitzer Cutting Edge Grant (awarded for cutting edge “bold first ascents or difficult repeats of most challenging routes”)
2007 Robert and Miriam Underhill Award, for outstanding mountaineering achievement, by the American Alpine Club
Keynote speaker and juror at leading mountain and wilderness film festivals:
2002 Mountainfilm in Telluride Festival, Telluride, Colorado
2003 Wild and Scenic Film Festival, Nevada City, California
2004 Banff Mountain Film Festival, Banff, Canada
2006 Juror, Trento Mountain Film Festival, Trento, Italy
2008 Juror, Inkafest Mountain Film Festival, Huaraz, Peru

Writings

References

1954 births
American mountain climbers
Living people
People from Harrison, New York
Western Washington University alumni
American summiters of Mount Everest
The Putney School alumni

masks:
Carlos Buhler
Buhler
Buhler
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<mask> (; born <mask>, 21 June 1961) is a French-Spanish singer. He sings in French, Spanish, English, Italian, Arabic, Catalan, Galician, Portuguese, Greek and occasionally in other languages. <mask> began his musical career in Paris, busking and playing with groups such as Hot Pants and Los Carayos, which combined a variety of languages and musical styles. With friends and his brother <mask>, he founded the band Mano Negra in 1987, achieving considerable success, particularly in Europe. He became a solo artist after its breakup in 1995, and since then tours regularly with his live band, Radio Bemba. Early life
<mask>'s mother, Felisa Ortega, is from Bilbao, Basque Country, and his father, writer and journalist <mask>, is from Vilalba, Galicia. They emigrated to Paris to avoid Francisco Franco's dictatorship—Manu's grandfather had been sentenced to death.Shortly after <mask>'s birth, the <mask> family moved to the outskirts of Paris, and Manu spent most of his childhood in Boulogne-Billancourt and Sèvres. As he grew up he was surrounded by many artists and intellectuals, most of whom were acquaintances of his father. <mask> cites much of his childhood experience as inspiration for some songs. As a child, he was a big fan of Cuban singer-pianist Bola de Nieve. Career

Early years and Mano Negra (1984-1995)
Heavily influenced by the UK rock scene, particularly The Clash, The Jam and Dr. Feelgood, <mask> and other musicians formed the Spanish/English rockabilly group Hot Pants in the mid-1980s. The group released a demo entitled "Mala Vida" in 1984, which received plenty of local critical praise but otherwise gained them little attention. By the time the group released their first album in 1986 the Parisian alternative music scene had taken flight, and <mask>, his brother <mask>, and friends such as Alain from Les Wampas formed Los Carayos to incorporate this sound with the rockabilly and punk styles of Hot Pants.Los Carayos remained a side project of the artists for eight years, releasing three albums in the first two years followed by a final album in 1994. In 1987, the <mask> brothers and their cousin Santiago Casariego founded the band Mano Negra. <mask> <mask> said in Alt.Latino in 2011, "Mano Negra started playing in a subway in Paris before the band started to be known and selling records. We started in a subway for a living. This is what made the musicians of Mano Negra. And so the people using the subway in Paris was very eclectic. There was people from a lot of different countries, different cultures.So we have to be able to play all kind of music to please all the people in a subway. So that was a perfect school to learn a lot of different styles of music." Starting on a smaller label, the group released a reworked version of the Hot Pants single "Mala Vida" in 1988, which quickly became a hit in France. The group soon moved to Virgin Records, and their first album Patchanka was released the following year. Though the group never gained much fame in the English-speaking market, popularity throughout the rest of the world soon followed, reaching the Top 5 in the Netherlands, Italy and Germany. The band achieved some fame in South America with 1992's Cargo Tour, where it played a series of shows in port cities, performing from a stage built into their tour ship's hold. Mano Negra also performed a tour through much of Colombia in a retired train, the "Ice Express".Still, rifts began to grow among band members during the port tour and the following year's train tour; many band members, including <mask>'s brother Antoine, had left the group by the end of 1994. Following that year's release of their final album, Casa Babylon, <mask> <mask> moved the band to Madrid, but legal problems with former bandmates led <mask> to disband the group in 1995. Mano Negra's sound is mostly characterized by energetic, lively rhythms, symbolized by the title of their first album, Patchanka, derived from the word pachanga (which is a colloquial term for "party"), and a distinct informality which allows the audience to get involved and feel close to their sound. Mixed music genres are present throughout their albums. <mask> <mask> is friends with Gogol Bordello and that group has covered Mano Negra's song "Mala Vida" on their own and with <mask> beginning in 2006. Solo years with Radio Bemba (1995-present)

After arriving in Madrid, <mask> and other bandmates from Mano Negra formed a new group, Radio Bemba Sound System (named for the communication system used in the Sierra Maestra by the Castro-and-Guevara-led rebels in the Cuban Revolution), featuring groups from diverse backgrounds, such as Mexican Tijuana No!, Brazilian Skank, and Argentinian Todos Tus Muertos. The goal was to replicate the sound of street music and bar scenes from a variety of cultures; to that end, <mask> and the group spent several years travelling throughout South and Central America, recording new music as they went.The resulting music differed drastically from Mano Negra; the songs were primarily sung in Spanish with far fewer French tracks and the musical style had shifted from punk and alternative styles to the street vibe <mask> was aiming for. The songs were collectively released as Clandestino in 1998, under <mask> <mask>'s own name. Though not an instant success, the album gained a steady following in France with hits such as "Bongo Bong" and "Clandestino", and the album eventually earned the Best World Music Album award in 1999's Victoires de la Musique awards. It sold in excess of 5 million copies. <mask>'s second album with Radio Bemba Sound System, Próxima Estación: Esperanza, was released in 2001. This album, named after one of the Madrid metro station stops (the title translates to "next station: Hope"), features similar sounds to Clandestino but with heavier Caribbean influences than the previous album. The album was an instant hit, leading to a successful tour that resulted in the 2002 live album Radio Bemba Sound System.Two years later, <mask> returned to his French roots with the French-only album Sibérie m'était contéee, which included a large book featuring lyrics to the album and illustrations by Jacek Woźniak. <mask> <mask>'s next album La Radiolina (literally "little radio" in Italian, but also "pocket radio") was released on 17 September 2007. This was the first international release since 2001's Próxima Estación: Esperanza. "Rainin in Paradize" was the first single from the album, available for download on his website before the release of the album. Concert reviews indicate that music from La Radiolina was already being performed live as early as April 2007's Coachella show. Other works
In 2003 he approached Amadou & Mariam and later produced their 2004 album Dimanche à Bamako ("Sunday in Bamako"). His song "Me llaman Calle", written for the 2005 Spanish film Princesas, earned that film a Goya nomination for Best Original Song.It has been released in 2007's La Radiolina. Vocals from the song are included in the Go Lem System song "Calle Go Lem". Time magazine named "Me Llaman Calle" one of The 10 Best Songs of 2007, ranking it at No. 8. Writer Josh Tyrangiel observed, <mask>'s warm singing over <mask> Gamboa and Carlos Herrero's leaping Flamenco counter melody creates a direct emotional line to the core of this mid-tempo ballad. With its easy melody and universal rhythm Me Llaman Calle walks proudly in the shadow of Bob Marley, the last guy who made world music this disarmingly simple.<mask> <mask> was featured on the album True Love by Toots and the Maytals, which won the Grammy Award in 2004 for Best Reggae Album, and showcased many notable musicians including Willie Nelson, Eric Clapton, Jeff Beck, Trey Anastasio, Gwen Stefani / No Doubt, Ben Harper, Bonnie Raitt, The Roots, Ryan Adams, Keith Richards, Toots Hibbert, Paul Douglas, Jackie Jackson, Ken Boothe, and The Skatalites. His song "La Vida Tómbola" was featured in the documentary film Maradona by Serbian filmmaker Emir Kusturica.The song "La Trampa", recorded with Tonino Carotone for the compilation album Fuerza! was used as the theme song for the short-lived improvisational comedy Drew Carey's Green Screen Show. The songs "Bongo Bong" and "Je ne t'aime plus", which appear back-to-back on Clandestino, were covered by British singers Robbie Williams and Lily Allen, who recorded them as a single track, "Bongo Bong and Je Ne T'aime Plus" and released it as a single from the album Rudebox. Musical style and influences
<mask> <mask> sings in Spanish, French, English, Portuguese, Galician, Arabic and Wolof, often mixing several languages in the same song. His music has many influences, such as punk, rock, French chanson, Iberoamerican salsa, reggae, ska, and Algerian raï. These influences were obtained from immigrants in France, his Iberian connections, and foremost his travels in Mesoamerica as a nomad following the disbanding of Mano Negra. While Mano Negra called their style patchanka (literally "patchwork"), <mask> <mask> speaks of música mestiza (:de:Mestizo-Musik), a musical style which may also incorporate elements of rap, flamenco, Afro-Cuban music, samba and cumbia.In many of his pieces he layers lyrics, music, and sound recordings over each other. In the short documentary film Infinita tristeza (essentially a video travelogue of <mask>'s 2001 tour of South America), included within the bonus section of his 2002 live DVD release Babylonia en Guagua, <mask> explained that his only recording tool is a small IBM (later Lenovo) ThinkPad laptop computer, which he carries with him wherever he goes; he has occasionally used conventional recording studios, such as Europa Sonor in Paris, to overdub instruments such as drums, electric guitars and brass, but the vast majority of his material (including all sorts of spoken-word samples from radio stations, TV, films, old vinyl records and, on Próxima Estación: Esperanza, announcements from the Madrid Metro) has been recorded by <mask> himself exclusively on his laptop. The Spanish credit Grabado en el Estudio Clandestino ("Recorded in Studio Clandestino/Clandestine Studio"), which appears on

masks:
Manu Chao
José Manuel Thomas Arthur Chao
Chao
Antoine Chao
Chao
Ramón Chao
Manu
Chao
Chao
Chao
Manu
Antoine Chao
Chao
Manu
Chao
Manu
Manu
Chao
Chao
Manu
Chao
Chao
Chao
Chao
Chao
Manu
Chao
Chao
Chao
Manu
Chao
Chao
José Manuel
Manu
Chao
Manu
Chao
Manu
Chao
Chao
Chao
Chao


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 all of his solo album starting from 1998's Clandestino, actually refers to the laptop. <mask> also has a tendency to reuse music or lyrics from previous songs to form new songs. The contemporary hit single in France "Bongo Bong", takes its lyrics from the earlier Mano Negra hit "King of Bongo", which bears a similar style to that of The Clash. The musical backdrop for "Bongo Bong", in turn, was used in several other <mask> songs, including "Je Ne T'Aime Plus" from the same album and "Mr. Bobby" and "Homens" from Próxima Estación: Esperanza. (According to a statement by <mask> himself in the Próxima Estación CD booklet, "Homens" is the song which the backdrop was originally written and recorded for, and all the others came later.)Also, the tune of "La Primavera", a track from that same album, is used in several other songs featured on the LP, while lyrics for a few songs on Sibérie m'était contéee are repeated several times with different music, leading the lyrics to be interpreted in various ways depending on the mood of the track. Several musical themes and clips from that album also appear on Amadou & Mariam's Chao-produced Dimanche à Bamako, which were being produced at approximately the same time. Though <mask> is quite well known in Europe and Latin America, he has not had the same success in the United States, England, or Australia. Tours in the United States with Mano Negra were not as successful as elsewhere and <mask> seems inclined to focus his efforts in the places where his musical style finds its roots. Though his live performances in the U.S. are infrequent, <mask> played a handful of dates there in 2006, including a headlining show at Lollapalooza 2006 in Chicago, IL. His final appearance on his 2006 U.S. tour was a benefit concert in the Prospect Park bandshell in Brooklyn, New York on 7 August. He returned to that venue in the summer of 2007 for two concerts, part of the multicultural "Celebrate Brooklyn" concert series.The crowd was treated to a nearly two-hour performance, including two encores. <mask> <mask> also appeared at Merriweather Post Pavilion in Columbia, Maryland to a sellout crowd on 23 June 2007. This was a semi-spontaneous endeavour between Thievery Corporation and <mask> <mask> facilitated by a new-found friendship developed during Lollapalooza 2006. He was one of the headlining acts at the 2008 Austin City Limits Music Festival and the Outside Lands Music Festival in Golden Gate Park. In January 2012 he was the headline act at the opening night of Sydney Festival, marking his first concert in Australia. Political views and activism

<mask> believes that our world lacks spaces for "collective therapy" and describes his concerts as small temporary spaces where people of different backgrounds can come together. <mask>'s lyrics provoke his audience to think about immigration, love, living in ghettos, drugs, and often carry a left-wing message.This reflects <mask>'s own political leanings—he is very close to the Zapatistas and their public spokesman, Subcomandante Marcos. He has many followers among the European left, the Latin American left and the anti-globalisation and anti-capitalist movements. <mask> is a founding member of ATTAC. Punk and reggae historian Vivien Goldman commented of his work, "I was writing about Good Charlotte and The Police. They adopted the trappings of punk. They aren’t bad groups, but the punk aspect is more manifested by somebody like <mask> <mask>. He's one of the punkiest artists out there I can think of.It's an inclusionary spirit that is punk." <mask> uses his Facebook and Twitter accounts to show support to many causes and current movements including Anti Globalization, Indigenous Peoples' Rights, Sex Workers' Rights, Women's Rights, Environmental Justice, and more. He also uses his personal website to provide news on events related to these causes and movements. Since 1991, <mask> has been working with La Colifata, which is an NGO made up of a group of patients and ex patients of Hospital Borda, a psychiatric hospital in Buenos Aires, Argentina. <mask> uses both a website and a Facebook account to show the work he does with these patients and ex patients. On their Facebook page he explains that the mission of this group is to diminish the stigma that people place on mental illness and to promote the use of services that are meant to help those with mental illnesses. Interview with the University of Southern California (2010)
In an interview with the School for Communication and Journalism at the University of Southern California in 2010, <mask> expressed his opinions about topics such as the effects of economic globalization on social inequality.He explained how he believes that the global market is causing social inequality, and how issues in education and immigration are connected to this. In this interview he expressed a worry that mafias are the greatest threat to democracy and that this is already evident in certain places, like Russia and Mexico. He stated that this is one reason that he is for the legalization of drugs such as marijuana - he explained that mafias are making capital off of the distribution of illegal drugs which gives them more economic power, thus making it easier for them to potentially overthrow governments. In this interview he also expressed his belief that currently, the global market is the largest force shaping the lives of people throughout the world. For this reason, he believes that the most effective way to solve social problems in individual countries is to address them at a global level by changing the policies dictating the global market. He explained that since most people are not given the power to directly change these policies, the most effective way to bring about change would be to make a statement to those running the economy by becoming self-sufficient through boycotting corporations, growing one's own vegetables, and making one's own clothes. He then added that he does not own a car or cell phone because he does not need either of these.He also talked about having weak leaders as a threat to democracy and explained that there are small movements in Spain that are fighting for blank votes to be recorded as legitimate votes. He explained this could be a solution because blank votes currently make up a majority of the votes in elections, which means that election results are inaccurate. Another topic he discussed during this interview was education. He expressed his belief that education is important and should be free for everyone. He mentioned that Cuba is able to provide free education for all those living in Cuba despite being a small country and that he does not understand how the United States being such a powerful nation was not able to do the same. He then expressed frustration at the fact that one can enroll in the armed forces in the United States and "learn to kill" for free, but had to pay to learn to do anything else. He suggested that this is a sign that the United States is afraid of its future.When asked about immigration during this interview, <mask> mentioned that the West, particularly the United States, has a population with a lot of elderly people and that in order to excel in the future, the West needs the youth from "Third World" countries. He explains that providing legal status to immigrant young people would require the United States to honor the rights of these immigrants, and therefore it is cheaper and easier for the United States to deny so many young immigrants a legal status. He then said that the "Occident...needs to open the borders." Mentioned in The Journal of Natural and Social Philosophy
In an article published in 2010, Cornelia Gräbner mentioned <mask>'s lyrics in a discussion about how the work of four different authors who contribute to the alter-globalization movement. Gräbner discusses how <mask> <mask>, Eduardo Galeano, Subcomandante Marcos, and José Saramago present alternative practice of politics from different perspectives. Gräbner states that <mask>'s work emphasizes the connection of contemporary ‘contentious Europe’ with past struggles, particularly through his lyrics and combinations of musical styles. Gräbner believes that <mask>'s family history plays a crucial role in his political views and how that has shaped the way he creates his music.She explains that "<mask> translates his family’s anti-fascist political tradition into a politicized embrace of cultural difference and into a clear anti-racist and anticapitalist stance." She also states that in the 1990s Mano Negra took an anticapitalist and anti-racist stance, and that <mask> continues to use these messages in his music even after the dissolution of Mano Negra. Discography

 Clandestino (1998)
 Próxima Estación: Esperanza (2001)
 Radio Bemba Sound System (2002)
 Sibérie m'était contéee (2004)
 La Radiolina (2007)
 Baionarena (2008)

References

Further reading
<mask>, Ramón. Mano Negra en Colombia. Un tren de hielo y fuego (originally Un train de glace et de feu), 1994. A chronicle of Mano Negra's 1993 tour on Colombia's decrepit railway through small, rural villages, written by Manu's father, <mask>. The name of the train, Expresso de Hielo, was inspired by the opening line of Gabriel García Márquez's novel One Hundred Years of Solitude.<mask>, Ramón. The Train of Ice and Fire – Mano Negra in Colombia – () Translated by Ann Wright, published in English by Route Route's Website

External links

1961 births
Living people
Arabic-language singers
Catalan-language singers
Musicians from Paris
French-language singers
20th-century French male singers
French people of Galician descent
French people of Basque descent
French socialists
Spanish-language singers of France
English-language singers from France
People from Galicia (Spain)
Galician-language singers
Italian-language singers
Portuguese-language singers
Rock en Español musicians
Latin Grammy Award winners
MTV Europe Music Award winners
Folk punk musicians
Anti-globalization activists
French buskers
Latin music songwriters
Nacional Records artists
Because Music artists
21st-century French male

masks:
Chao
Chao
Chao
Chao
Chao
Chao
Manu
Chao
Manu
Chao
Chao
Chao
Chao
Chao
Manu
Chao
Chao
Chao
Chao
Chao
Chao
Chao
Manu
Chao
Chao
Chao
Chao
Chao
Chao
Ramón Chao
Chao


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<mask> also known by the pen name Vaižgantas (20 September 1869 – 29 April 1933) was a Lithuanian Roman Catholic priest and an activist during the Lithuanian National Revival. He was a prolific writer, editor of nine periodicals, university professor, and member of numerous societies and organizations. His most notable works of fiction include the novel Pragiedruliai (Cloud Clearing) and the narrative Dėdės ir dėdienės (Uncles and Aunts) about the ordinary village folk. Born to a family of Lithuanian peasants, Tumas was educated at a gymnasium in Daugavpils (present-day Latvia) and Kaunas Priest Seminary. He began contributing to the Lithuanian press, then banned by the Tsarist authorities, in 1889 or 1890. He was ordained as a priest in 1893 and posted to Mitau (present-day Jelgava, Latvia). In 1895, he was reassigned to Mosėdis in northwestern Lithuania.There he organized the publication of Tėvynės sargas and the book smuggling into Lithuania. His brother Jonas was caught with the banned publications and was sentenced to three years in prison and two years of exile. Due to his Lithuanian activities and short temper, Tumas quarreled with his superiors and was frequently moved to increasingly more remote parishes. However, in 1906, bishops of Samogitia and Vilnius agreed to allow Tumas to move to Vilnius to work as an editor of the daily Vilniaus žinios published by Petras Vileišis. He edited the newspaper only for a couple of months but remained in Vilnius as editor of Viltis, co-founded with Antanas Smetona. This new cultural newspaper hoped to unite conservative Catholic clergy and more liberal intelligentsia for the common good of the Lithuanian nation. After publishing an article critical of the Diocese of Vilnius for suppressing the Lithuanian language in favor of the Polish language, Tumas was exiled to Laižuva in 1911.In 1911, together with Konstantinas Olšauskas, he toured Lithuanian American communities collecting donations for the construction of the headquarters of the Saulė Society. During World War I, Tumas moved to Riga and edited Rygos garsas. As a member of the Lithuanian Society for the Relief of War Sufferers, he organized relief for Lithuanian refugees. In 1917, as one of the founders of the Party of National Progress, he attended political conferences in Petrograd, Kiev, and Stockholm advocating for full independence of Lithuania. He returned to Vilnius in 1918, but moved to Kaunas after the city was captured by Poland. He edited Tauta, published by the Party of National Progress, and ran in the elections to the Constituent Assembly of Lithuania, but largely withdrew from politics when he was not elected. He became rector of the Church of Vytautas the Great and organized its reconstruction.From 1922 to 1929, he taught a course on the Lithuanian literature during the era of the Lithuanian press ban (1864–1904) at the University of Lithuania. Tumas published several works on writers' biographies and amassed a large collection of material (manuscripts, correspondence, photos, etc.) about the writers. On the basis of this material, he organized a literary archive at the university. Biography

Early life and education

Tumas was born in the village of  north of Svėdasai into a peasant family that owned 24  of land. He was the youngest of ten children, but only he and four siblings survived to adulthood. Tumas was born at midday of the Nativity of Mary (O.S.8 September). His mother, aged 45, took all this as a sign that he should become a priest. At age five, Tumas received his Confirmation from bishop Motiejus Valančius in Kaunas. He completed his elementary school studies in  within two years, which was faster than any other student. However, his knowledge was poor – he had very good memory and could repeat material without understanding it. Nevertheless, in fall 1881, he managed to pass entrance exams to the gymnasium in Daugavpils which accepted about 50 students out of 150 applicants. After four years of study, his parents urged him to transfer to the Kaunas Priest Seminary, but he decided to finish the studies and started earning a living by giving private lessons.Long studies followed by private lessons to make a living negatively impacted Tumas' health and he frequently contracted respiratory illnesses. During this time he developed an interest in Russian classic literature, particularly biographies and memoirs. His favorites were autobiographical novels Childhood, Boyhood, and Youth by Leo Tolstoy. He also read Sergey Aksakov, Ivan Turgenev (A Sportsman's Sketches), Gleb Uspensky, Mikhail Zagoskin, Ivan Goncharov, Nikolay Dobrolyubov, Dmitry Pisarev, and other authors. The gymnasium students organized and Tumas participated in illegal groups to read and discuss various banned, mostly socialist, publications. Lithuanian  introduced Tumas to Aušra (Dawn), the first Lithuanian-language periodical that was printed in Tilsit, East Prussia, due to the Lithuanian press ban. However, Tumas did not adopt socialist worldview and there were too few Lithuanians to develop any kind of Lithuanian activities.After repeating the final year for the second time, Tumas graduated the gymnasium in 1888. After graduation, Tumas had to choose university or priest seminary. He doubted his calling for priesthood and considered studying veterinary in Saint Petersburg. His family's wishes and his poor health decided that he applied to the Kaunas Priest Seminary. He had no particular calling for the theology studies and especially struggled with Latin: before entering the seminary, he knew no Latin and there were no Lithuanian or Russian dictionaries, thus he had to use a Polish–Latin dictionary but he did not know Polish either. Lithuanian language was taught by Kazimieras Jaunius who provided little practical knowledge but inspired his students. Lithuanian students, including Tumas, organized a secret society with a goal of translating and publishing various Lithuanian religious texts.It became known as the Society of Saint Casimir when one of its members obtained relics of Saint Casimir, the patron saint of Lithuania. Catholic periodical Žemaičių ir Lietuvos apžvalga (Samogitian and Lithuanian Review) appeared in October 1889 and Tumas contributed articled on Catholic and Lithuanian topics. His first contribution to the Lithuanian press was a correspondence to either Varpas in 1889 or Žemaičių ir Lietuvos apžvalga in 1890. Due to a bout of tuberculosis, Tumas interrupted his studies in early 1890 and returned to his native Maleišiai for vacation and treatment for a year and a half. During that time, he continued to write for Žemaičių ir Lietuvos apžvalga. He returned to the seminary and concentrated on his studies, graduating in fall 1893. During the summer 1893, Tumas traveled to Mosėdis in an attempt to persuade Kazimieras Pakalniškis, editor of Žemaičių ir Lietuvos apžvalga, to soften his criticism of the secular intelligentsia.He was ordained as a priest on 28 November 1893 in Kaunas Cathedral by bishop . At some point, he also joined the Third Order of Saint Francis. Publisher of Tėvynės sargas

Tumas was first sent by the Diocese of Samogitia as vicar to Mitau (present-day Jelgava, Latvia), away from Lithuanian-speaking areas. However, Mitau already had a vicar, who moved from Ilūkste without diocese's approval. Therefore, Tumas received a very cold welcome from local priests. He worked as a chaplain of a prison and a private gymnasium, and struggled with Polish-language sermons. In Mitau, Tumas found a group of Lithuanians, including linguist Jonas Jablonskis and attorney Antanas Kriščiukaitis, and often attended their gatherings.Jablonskis approved his first more serious literary experiment – a translation of one of the short stories by Henryk Sienkiewicz – and published it in Varpas. Dean Piotr Walent disapproved such meetings and wanted to control Tumas' activities, but Tumas refused to obey. Their conflict continued until the dean was deported to Simbirsk in January 1895. At the same time, 23 other priests implicated in the  case were deported to other locations in Russia. Tumas was not satisfied with his posting in Mitau and, after reading a poem by Maironis in spring 1895, sent an emotional letter to the bishop requesting a reassignment. He received a reply in a week, but did not get a new posting until four months later. In summer 1895, Tumas was assigned as a vicar and a teacher of religion to Mosėdis.He devoted his efforts to the Lithuanian press. In collaboration with priests Felicijonas Lelis and Kazimieras Kazlauskas held in the Kretinga Monastery, Tumas established the monthly magazine Tėvynės sargas (Guardian of the Fatherland) in January 1896. Due to the Lithuanian press ban, it had to be printed in East Prussia and then smuggled into Lithuania. Tumas almost single-handedly edited the magazine from the December 1897 to the April–May 1902 issue. While it was a Catholic publication, it was relatively more liberal than Žemaičių ir Lietuvos apžvalga. It attempted to reconcile the Catholic dogma with the Lithuanian National Revival. While the newspaper promoted the Lithuanian identity (faith, language, culture) and opposed various Russification policies, it did not support political resistance against the Tsarist regime and in general accepted the existing social and political order.In October 1896, Tumas' brother Jonas was arrested in Priekulė for transporting a suitcase full of booklets printed by Tėvynės sargas. The police also seized letters that implicated others in the book smuggling operation, but Tumas managed to bribe police officials and destroy the letters. Tumas was searched, interrogated, dismissed from his job as a teacher, and sentenced to five years of exile by the Governor-General of Vilnius. His friends, particularly former classmate , encouraged him to flee to United States, but Adomas Jakštas who was deported for five years to Ustyuzhna persuaded him to stay. The Ministry of the Interior did not approve the sentence and it was reduced to a year of house arrest. His brother, caught red handed, could not avoid the punishment and served three years in the Kresty Prison and two years of exile in Bessarabia. In August 1898, Tumas was transferred to Kuliai.It was a convenient location for Tumas' illegal work – it was remote but also close to the Prussia–Russia border – and he organized a distribution point for the banned Lithuanian press. A local farmer would smuggle the books across the border, Tumas would hide them in the large clergy house until book smugglers such as Jonas Krikščiūnas picked them up for further distribution. To help the distribution, Tumas decided to split Tėvynės sargas into two parts – the first part contained more dangerous political topics and thus could bring harsher sentences, while the second part contained more innocent practical articles on farming, etc. and thus attracted less interest from the police. This magazine was geared towards the common folk and Tumas yearned for a magazine for the intelligentsia. To that end, he published five issues of Žinyčia (Treasury of Knowledge) in 1900–1902. It was a cultural, not political magazine.Tumas was an avid reader. A surviving list of books owned by Tumas in 1899 shows 433 books, acquired since 1894. The list did not include any of the illegal Lithuanian publications and thus should be longer. Troubles with the superiors
In 1900, someone wrote an angry article to Ūkininkas (Farmer) about Duke , owner of the Rietavas Manor. Ogiński suspected that its author was Tumas and complained to bishop , who reassigned Tumas to  near Kuršėnai in July 1901. Tumas had to leave Tėvynės sargas in care of Antanas Milukas, though continued to be actively involved in its publication and officially resigned as editor in the first issue of 1902. In Micaičiai, Tumas began organizing a charitable society that would maintain a shelter for the poor.His work, commenced without the proper approval of his superiors, and deeply pro-Lithuanian attitudes upset priests from Viekšniai, Kuršėnai, and Šakyna. They wrote complaints to  bishop Paliulionis. One of the complaints attacked a translation of a short catechism by Roch Filochowski published by Tumas in 1898 with counterfeited publication data (supposedly, published in 1863 at the Zawadzki Press in Vilnius). The complaint protested that the catechism also counterfeited its approbation (supposedly, by bishop Motiejus Valančius) and that it replaced various Polish loanwords and barbarisms with Lithuanian equivalents. In another complaint, Tumas was attacked for insisting that fellow priests spoke Lithuanian among themselves. As a result, Tumas was reassigned to a small and poor church in  north of Vadaktai in May 1902. In October 1902, the Samogitian consistory, presided by suffragan bishop , debated complaints against Tumas, including that he was a leader of the Lithuanian National Revival, that he published an illegal Lithuanian newspaper and that he traveled widely soliciting contributions and donations to this newspaper.He was largely cleared of the charges, but was put on probation. He was to cease activities not directly related to his clerical duties and was prohibited from printing anything or traveling anywhere without an approval of the bishop. Tumas, isolated in Vadaktėliai under a watchful eye of fellow priests and police, was still able participate in Lithuanian activities. For example, in 1903, he published a translation of an invitation to the Lithuanian nobility to join the National Revival by Adomas Jakštas in Dirva-Žinynas (Soil-Reference Book) and continued to care for the finances of Tėvynės sargas. He remained in Vadaktėliai despite his friends' suggestions of ways to improve his station – Antanas Milukas urged to emigrate to United States where he could become a parish priest in Hazleton, Pennsylvania, Andrius Dubinskas suggested moving to Riga or Saint Petersburg, and Jakštas proposed to pursue an advanced degree in theology. Russian Revolution of 1905

The outbreak of the Russo-Japanese War forced the Tsarist government to make concessions to ethnic minorities and the Lithuanian press ban was lifted in April 1904. He met the news with plans for a publication on ethnography, one of his many interests boosted by a visit from Finnish ethnographer .He published a call in Vilniaus žinios (News of Vilnius) for the publication to be edited by Jonas Jablonskis, but the plans remained unrealized. During the Russian Revolution of 1905, before the Great Seimas of Vilnius in December 1905, he visited all Lithuanian dioceses (Samogitia, Vilnius, and Sejny) as well as the Saint Petersburg Roman Catholic Theological Academy organizing the priests. At the seimas, he was elected to its presidium, but resigned giving up his seat to Pranciškus Būčys. He delivered a speech promoting non-violent resistance to the Tsarist regime and cited the example of Finland. At the seimas, priests organized the Lithuanian Christian Democratic Union, predecessor of the Lithuanian Christian Democratic Party, and Tumas petitioned bishop Eduard von der Ropp to remain in Vilnius as union's representative, but the bishop rejected the request. Tumas returned to Vadaktėliai and organized a local chapter of the union. He also proposed regulations protecting manor workers – some of the ideas were later incorporated into a national law, drafted by Mykolas Krupavičius, Minister of Agriculture from 1923 to 1926.Upon learning of such activities, bishop Paliulionis urgently reassigned Tumas to Sidabravas in December 1905 and to Stakiai in March 1906. Due to the relocation, he skipped the election to the first Russian State Duma. He was also arrested before moving to Stakiai, but released on bail. He helped Vincas Mickevičius-Kapsukas, future Soviet revolutionary, hide from the Tsarist police. In Stakiai, which was particularly remote ( to the nearest


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 school and  to the nearest town), Tumas mostly took care of the church's farm and organized a purchase of phosphate fertilisers for the entire village to use. Vilniaus žinios  and Viltis
Petras Vileišis, the publisher of the daily Vilniaus žinios (News of Vilnius), suffered financial difficulties and searched for ways to increase the newspaper's circulation. He enlisted the clergy to help the newspaper and they searched for a new editor among the priests.The younger priests advocated for Tumas, particularly given his editorial experience with Tėvynės sargas. Reluctantly, bishops Paliulionis and von der Ropp agreed to transfer Tumas to Vilnius to work on the newspaper. He was promised a monthly salary of 75 rubles, but he was hesitant to take the offer. He cautioned that he was arrogant, short-tempered, and held strong convictions and opinions. He penned a declaration of principles that he would try to adhere to as the new editor. Vilniaus žinios was to be a liberal nationalist Catholic publication advocating for the Lithuanian autonomy within the Russian Empire. It would not be socialist, but it would treat all social classes equally.It would defend the Catholic faith as the foundation of the order and morality and the Lithuanian nation as an equal to others. Tumas left Stakiai in February 1907 and edited the newspaper until it briefly stopped the publication in April 1907. During that short time, Tumas wrote many articles on various topics, including on education, art, economy. When Vilniaus žinios was briefly discontinued due to financial difficulties, Tumas and his co-editor Antanas Smetona organized the publication of Viltis (Hope), a new newspaper that hoped to unite conservative Catholic clergy and more liberal intelligentsia for the common good of the Lithuanian nation. Tumas traveled across Lithuania agitating priests to support the endeavor and managed to sign up 179 shareholders who each agreed to contribute 100 rubles annually to the trust company set up to publish the newspaper. The first issue appeared in October 1907. While Smetona was influential setting the ideology, he had a full-time job at the Vilnius Land Bank and thus Tumas handled most of the day-to-day workings of the publication.Published three times a week, Viltis concentrated on cultural matters as opposed to politics or news reports, paying particular attention to the Lithuanian language and folk culture as well as issues in art, science, education, and morals. Tumas wrote reviews of literary and scientific works. Tumas was also active in Lithuanian cultural life in Vilnius. He was a board member of the Lithuanian Scientific Society and gifted some of his personal book collection to its new library. He was also a member of the Lithuanian Art Society and participated in the cultural Rūta Society. In July 1910, Tumas traveled as a correspondent to the official opening of the Grunwald Monument in Kraków during the celebration of the 500th anniversary of the Battle of Grunwald. His critical article was published in the Ukrainian newspaper .He contrasted the celebration, attended by many dignitaries, with Estonian and Latvian Song Festivals and concluded that the Grunwald celebration did not sufficiently involve all social classes. The Polish press responded by attacking Tumas and accusing him of anti-Polish attitudes. Viltis had a permanent column to report on the situation of Lithuanian Catholics in the Diocese of Vilnius and in particular on their fight for the Lithuanian-language church services. In November 1910, Tumas published an article listing known churches where Lithuanian-language services were removed by orders of , administrator of the Diocese of Vilnius while Bishop von der Ropp was in exile. This caused much controversy and, in February 1911, bishop  assigned Tumas to Laižuva in northern Lithuania. Effectively, it was an exile and also meant his departure from Viltis. His place was taken by other priests, Fabijonas Kemėšis and later <mask> Dabužis.Various Lithuanian groups sent letters protesting the removal of Tumas-Vaižgantas to Viltis for three months. Exile to Laižuva
Tumas arrived to Laižuva on 1 March 1911. Just three months later, in May, priest Konstantinas Olšauskas invited him to visit Lithuanian American communities and collect donations for the construction of the headquarters of the Saulė Society which organized Lithuanian schools in the Kovno Governorate. Aboard the SS Kronprinzessin Cecilie they arrived to New York on 5 July. They toured 55 Lithuanian American communities for three months and collected about $19,000 () or 34,000 rubles. More donations were collected in Lithuania and the headquarters, a three-storey brick building at a cost of 155,000 rubles, was completed in Žaliakalnis in 1914. Upon the return, Tumas visited various Lithuanian towns and delivered over thirty speeches against emigration to the United States sharing stories of the difficult conditions and poverty of Lithuanian Americans.In 1912, these lectures were published as a separate booklet by the Society of Saint Casimir. In 1912, Tumas was offered to move to Riga to work as an editor of Rygos garsas (Sound of Riga) and encouraged to run for the Russian State Duma. However, he refused in part due to debts and ill health. He did participate in the Duma elections, helping to elect Lithuanian candidates, including Martynas Yčas. During 1912, Tumas suffered from a depressive episode or neurasthenia. He also nursed his nephew Kazys Mėginis who died of tuberculosis in spring 1913. After his death, Tumas' attention shifted from journalism to literary work.He collected his previous works, edited them for style and language, and published in various Lithuanian newspapers hoping to publish them as separate booklets. In August 1913, Tumas, as a correspondent of Viltis, participated in the opening of the Estonia Theatre in Tallinn. When a conflict with the conservative clergy forced Antanas Smetona to resign from Viltis in September 1913, he established a new publication Vairas (Rudder) to continue the same ideology as the original Viltis. Tumas contributed his best works to Vairas with only a few submissions to Viltis. During World War I
In summer 1914, , editor of Rygos garsas and former contributor to Tėvynės sargas, visited Tumas in Laižuva and offered him to become co-editor of the newspaper published in Riga. At the time, about 50,000 Lithuanians lived in Riga. New bishop  supported the effort and even found a priest that would buy Tumas' farm so that he could repay his debts.Tumas arrived to Riga in December 1914 and lived at the clergy house of the Our Lady of Sorrows Church. He was promised a salary of 30 rubles a month for his editorial work, but due to financial difficulties did not receive it. Rygos garsas was a four-page newspaper published twice a week. Bikinas edited news and political articles, while Tumas edited articles on cultural and societal matters. To address war-time demand for news, the publication frequency was increased to three times a week and the circulation reached 13,000 copies. With the German attack in the Second Battle of the Masurian Lakes in February 1915, Lithuanian war refugees began arriving to Riga. Tumas and others organized refugee relief – opening shelters and soup kitchens, providing clothes and basic medical care, finding employment.Tumas and Pranas Mašiotas became representatives of the Lithuanian Society for the Relief of War Sufferers. In his fundraising efforts, Tumas met with various Latvian activists, including Jānis Čakste and Alberts Kviesis, future Presidents of Latvia. In five months, Lithuanians in Riga raised 10,314 rubles and helped some 4,000 refugees. When, as a result of the Great Retreat, German army took control of Lithuania in September 1915, the Lithuanian Society for the Relief of War Sufferers split into two sections – one remained in Vilnius and the other evacuated to Saint Petersburg. Tumas was invited to become the general manager of the Saint Petersburg section, but quickly relinquished the duties as he was ill-suited for an office job. Instead, he traveled across Russia visiting Lithuanian refugees in Tambov, Crimea, Kursk, Tver, and elsewhere. He also wrote and published fiction works (four booklets in 1915–1916) and translated booklets for children (three works in 1917).During the summer 1916 vacation in Voronezh, Tumas delivered a series of lectures Lithuanian teachers on Lithuanian writers and literature and planned on publishing the lectures as a separate book. Lithuanians became more politically active, particularly after the February Revolution, working to secure Lithuania's future after the war. Together with  and , both former contributors to Viltis, Tumas established the Party of National Progress in 1916, but it became publicly active in early 1917. The party essentially adopted the same ideology as Viltis – represent the middle (nationalist) road between socialists and Christian democrats. In February 1917, Tumas was elected to the Council of the Lithuanian Nation, which aspired to become an authoritative body that could represent all Lithuanians and their political objectives. The council decided to organize a political conference, known as the Petrograd Seimas, in June 1917. Tumas traveled to Riga to help elect six representatives of the Party of National Progress to the Seimas (in total, the party had 20 representatives at the Seimas) and to Mogilev to convince Petras Kraujalis not to hold a separate Catholic conference.The Seimas was a raucous affair with passionate disagreements whether Lithuanians should demand full independence or autonomy within the Russian Empire. Tumas and other members of his party called for full independence. Their resolution won by a narrow margin of vote, but the opponents could not accept it and withdrew from the Seimas splintering the Council of the Lithuanian Nation. It was a severe blow to Tumas and his life-long work to unite Lithuanians for the common good of the Lithuanian nation. Tumas was delegated to the Congress of the Peoples of Russia organized by the Ukrainian Central Rada in Kiev in September 1917. Lithuanians, represented by nine men, including Augustinas Voldemaras and Antanas Tumėnas, were the only participating ethnic group to demand full independence. Upon return, together with Stasys Šilingas and , he was sent to the Lithuanian Conference in Stockholm in October 1917.The conference approved the resolution adopted by the Vilnius Conference, recognized the Council of Lithuania as the legitimate representative of the Lithuanian nation, and reiterated Lithuania's desire for full independence. Tumas decided not to return to Russia, but instead travel back to Lithuania. The required paperwork took seven months and Tumas devoted most of his time to writing Pragiedruliai. In independent Lithuania

Newspaper editor and political activities

Tumas returned to Vilnius in May 1918. He started writing articles for Lietuvos aidas (Echo of Lithuania), eventually taking over as editor from Petras Klimas, and attending the sessions of the Council of Lithuania as a guest. At the outbreak of the Lithuanian–Soviet War, many Lithuanian institutions evacuated to Kaunas but Tumas remained in the city. He was a member of the Lithuanian delegation to Vincas Kapsukas, leader of the Lithuanian Soviet Socialist Republic, in attempt to find a modus vivendi.Vaclovas Biržiška, the Commissar of Education, supported Lithuanian activities and employed Tumas as a translator of educational books. Only one by  was actually published. Tumas contracted typhus and was ill when Polish army captured Vilnius during the Polish–Soviet War in April 1919. Upon recovery, he edited and helped publish  (Independent Lithuania). In his articles, he harshly criticized the new Polish administration, in particular before it enforced censorship. Several of his articles attacked Polish priest Stanisław Maciejewicz, a deputy of the Polish Legislative Sejm. Maciejewicz accused Tumas of libel and initiated a case in the ecclesiastical court of the Diocese of Vilnius, but later abandoned it.In early 1920, Antanas Smetona invited Tumas to Kaunas to become editor of Tauta (Nation) published by the Party of National Progress. He moved to Kaunas in March 1920 and ran in the elections to the Constituent Assembly of Lithuania. He visited five volosts and delivered eight speeches, but was not elected and largely withdrew from politics. He continued to support Antanas Smetona and the Lithuanian Nationalist Union for which he was frequently criticized by the Lithuanian Christian Democratic Party. On 11 November 1923, during an intermission at the Kaunas City Theatre, Tumas publicly addressed Aleksandras Stulginskis, President of Lithuania, asking him to pardon Smetona, who at the time served a prison sentence for criticizing the government. The play was canceled and Tumas received a public reprimand from the bishop and a symbolic one-day house arrest for public disturbance from the Kaunas District Peace Court. Tumas submitted clemency requests on behalf of many others, including .Tumas joined the Lithuanian Riflemen's Union and became temporary editor of its magazine Trimitas. In January 1921, eleven older Lithuanian activists, including Kazys Grinius, Jonas Jablonskis, and Maironis, decided to publish an irregular publication with their memoirs of the Lithuanian National Revival and other articles on the history of Lithuania. Tumas became the editor of Mūsų senovė (Our Past) and with funding from the Ministry of Education published five volumes (865 pages) in 1921–1922. It was the ninth and last publication edited by Tumas. However, he continued to contribute articles to numerous, including social democratic, newspapers. Church rector and university docent

In March 1920, Tumas also became rector of Church of Vytautas the Great. It was his ninth and last parish.The church, funded by the Grand Duke Vytautas, was devastated during World War I and needed extensive repairs. Tumas solicited donations, hired workers for repairs and artists Paulius Galaunė, Petras Kalpokas,  for decoration. The church was reconsecrated on 15 August 1920 by Adomas Jakštas, but repairs continued for years. It was not a parish church, but Tumas was often asked to perform weddings, baptisms, last rites. Many requested his services, because he was more lenient and accommodating. For example, in 1921, he wed poet  at the break of dawn since dawn was a key symbol in Vaičiūnas' poetry. In ten years, from 1920 to 1930, Tumas wed 1,375 couples.He resigned from the church due to poor health in January 1933 and delivered the last sermon on 16 February. Over the years, Tumas had collected information on Lithuanian writers and literature. In 1921–1922, he lectured on topics in Lithuanian literature at the Higher Officers' Courses and a teachers' courses. He was also invited to teach at the War School of Kaunas, but refused due to lack of time. Tumas was invited by Vincas Krėvė-Mickevičius to teach at the newly established University of Lithuania. He started with a lecture on the poetry of Maironis in the fall 1922 semester. His lack of higher education was an obstacle and he was promoted to docent only in June 1924.He taught a course on the Lithuanian literature during the Lithuanian press ban (1864–1904). He chose to discuss different writers every semester instead of a more systematic chronological or thematic approach. He lectured not only on the well-known (such as Antanas Baranauskas or Žemaitė) but also on virtually forgotten authors. He retired from the university in March 1929 due to poor health (throat and lung issues made it difficult to speak for long periods of time). The university awarded him a pension and an honorary doctorate. He returned to the university for the spring 1932 semester when he taught a class on Lithuanian women writers. Other


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 public work and death

Tumas was instrumental in establishing a literary archive at the university that collected writers' manuscripts, correspondence, photos, etc.Tumas donated most of his personal collection to this archive, officially established in March 1923. In 1924–1926, Tumas worked as a reviewer of books and educational materials for the Ministry of Education. During that time he reviewed 66 works. He also contributed biographical articles to Lietuviškoji enciklopedija, the first Lithuanian-language encyclopedia. Tumas frequently traveled across Lithuania and internationally, including to Italy in 1931 and to Latvia and Sweden in 1932. In addition to his paid jobs, Tumas was very active in Lithuanian cultural life – he was chairman, treasurer, or board members of various Lithuanian societies, committees, and commissions, about 20 different organizations in total. He was a member of the Lithuanian Riflemen's Union and was awarded its Riflemen's Star.He was a member and, for a period, secretary of the Lithuanian Catholic Academy of Science and treasurer of the book publishing company Universitetas. In 1932, he was elected chairman of the Lithuanian Writers' Union. He actively supported and was elected as honorary member of , a nationalist student organization at the university, and was spiritual adviser to Young Lithuania, youth organization of the Lithuanian Nationalist Union. He received numerous visitors asking him for donations, loans, or personal recommendations. Despite all of these activities, he still found time to write works of fiction, though his ability to write longer works was impeded. In independent Lithuania, Tumas' efforts and works received official recognition. He was promoted as honorary canon of the Samogitian Capitulum in April 1921.He was awarded the Order of the Lithuanian Grand Duke Gediminas (2nd degree) on 15 May 1928, and the Order of Vytautas the Great (2nd degree) in 1932. He also received the Latvian Order of the Three Stars (2nd degree). Tumas supervised the construction of the villa of his nephew-in-law Petras Klimas in Ąžuolynas and spent his last months there. In January 1933, Tumas was diagnosed with vitamin B12 deficiency anemia caused by colitis. In early March, he was diagnosed with bronchitis which grew into pneumonia. He spent the last week bedridden and died in the evening of 29 April 1933. He was buried at the Church of Vytautas the Great.His funeral, a grand public affair attended by many dignitaries, was a subject to one of the first documentaries produced in Lithuania. Works

Fiction

Tumas began writing works of fiction in 1897. They were first published as a separate booklet Vaizdeliai (Scenes) in 1902. He signed by the pen name Vaižgantas, the name of a god of flax and hemp in the Lithuanian mythology mentioned by Jan Łasicki. Until 1915, he wrote several cycles. Scenos vaizdai (Stage Scenes) was a cycle of plays poking fun at the shortcomings of the ordinary village folk (first published in 1906 and 1915). Aukštaičių vaizdeliai (Scenes of Aukštaičiai) was a cycle of autobiographical short stories.Alegorijų vaizdai (Allegorical Scenes) included political and didactic stories (first published in 1916). Karo vaizdai (Scenes of War) were written during World War I and focused on the effects of war on the civilian population (first published in 1915). The best known story from this period is Rimai ir Nerimai (The Rimas and Nerimas Families), a tragicomedy depicting a comic rivalry between two families that is brought to an end by a common tragedy (their sons are mobilized into the Imperial Russian Army and killed in the war). He wrote the two-volume (first volume in two parts devoted to Samogitia, the second volume to Aukštaitija) epic novel Pragiedruliai (Cloud Clearing) in 1917–1920. It depicts the Lithuanian National Revival, social and economic transformation in rural Lithuania, and the resistance, sometimes subconscious, to the Tsarist regime by the ordinary villagers – from improved agricultural methods to sending children to school, reading prohibited Lithuanian literature, and becoming interested in politics. The novel does not have a linear plot or structure. From separate scenes, pictures of nature, ethnographic descriptions of festivals or clothing, local legends and folktales, the novel builds a mosaic of the spiritual pulse of the nation – its languishing memory of serfdom, spreading education, improving economic conditions, maturing political involvement, developing national consciousness.Lithuanians are depicted as one large family working towards the same goal. The novel has a large cast or characters, including Lithuanian peasants, industrious Jews, Polonized gentry, Russian administrators. The final scenes of Gondingos kraštas depict a double marriage that contains borrowed elements from Pan Tadeusz by Adam Mickiewicz. Overall, it is a rather optimistic work that, while acknowledging painful setbacks and individual sacrifices, celebrates the cultural progress. While it is considered the best work of Tumas and was quickly added to school curriculum, not everyone praised it. For example, Liudas Gira considered it to be boring, confusing, and difficult to understand, particularly for the urban residents. After Lithuania's independence in 1918, Tumas' fiction turned from public to individual life.His novel Dėdės ir dėdienės (Uncles and Aunts), published in 1920–1921, explores three tragic lives. Mykoliukas, the younger son, sacrifices everything, including his love for Severija, for his elder brother and his family. He works the brother's farm essentially as a slave, earning nothing of his own, and is compared to Saint Isidore the Laborer. Severija marries Rapolas, an older man working as supervisor at a local manor. After the Emancipation reform of 1861, Rapolas loses his job and, unable to earn his own farm due to his laziness, moves in with his brother. He dies after accidentally eating rat poison. Severija works hard trying to earn her and her husband's keep at the unwelcoming home of her brother-in-law.After her husband's death, she is left all alone and starts abusing alcohol. The novel was adapted into a film, Tas prakeiktas nuolankumas (The Damn Submissive) in 1970. After his retirement from the University of Lithuania, Tumas was able to devote more time to fiction. Didactic novel Šeimos vėžiai (Tracks of a Family; 1929) looks into a family of Lithuanian intellectuals and their choices between an "empty" life of a cushy job and romantic love or a "meaningful" life of work for the Lithuanian nation. It was meant to become the third volume of Pragiedruliai. Short story Išgama (Freak; 1929) tells a true story from Tumas' childhood – a boy who liked to daydream and maybe could have become an artist, but his father beat him and called him a freak for being different and not interested in farm work. The boy ran away from home and was killed trying to steal horses.Nebylys (Mute; 1930) deals with a love triangle that turns two childhood friends into rivals and enemies. It ends with the murder of one of the friends, katorga for the other, and insanity for their love interest. The story was adapted into a theater play in 1970 and a TV play in 1980. Tumas' last major work, Žemaičių Robinzonas (Samogitian Robinson; 1932), explores the life of Vincas, an energetic orphan who builds a prosperous farm with his own hands. But his family is infertile and he starts drinking alcohol. Vincas tries public work – construction of a church and serving as a starshina of his volost – to no avail. Unlike many other writers of the period, Tumas did not dwell on the heroic past (i.e.romantic nationalism) and instead focused on the present-day. His characters and plots were borrowed directly from his own experience or from witnesses. His characters often struggle with worldly passions (e.g. alcoholism, sexual desire, greed). Tumas, while depicting everyday life, expressed deeper romantic ideas and ideals. One of the key ideas is public service and hard work – those who sacrifice their narrow self-interests and passions and diligently work for their families or the public good find meaning and salvation, while others fall to misery and degradation. Thus work becomes a greater moral virtue.The narrator, Tumas' alter ego, often interrupts the story to offer his emotional and expressive judgement or opinion. While Tumas considered himself to be a romantic writer, his works combine elements of various styles (romanticism and realism, fiction and non-fiction). His writing style is thick and heavy, verbose, full of Lithuanian folk motives and wit. He tried to use the standard Lithuanian instead of his native Aukštaitian dialect, but he freely coined neologisms and used dialects and loanwords when he wanted to be more expressive. His peculiar style is often described with the adjective vaižgantiškas. As a unique writer, Tumas is usually not discussed when discussing general trends in the Lithuanian literature but receives considerable critical attention. Non-fiction
Tumas was a prolific writer.He edited and published 19 volumes of his collected works. Since 1994, the Institute of Lithuanian Literature and Folklore has been working on publishing his collected works. 24 volumes were published by 2015 with 30 volumes planned in total. He wrote on a variety of topics in various genres (e.g. editorials, feuilletons, reviews), often producing several articles day. He wrote more than 150 obituaries of Lithuanian priests alone. In total, Tumas contributed articles to more than 80 different periodicals.In addition, Tumas wrote thousands of letters, only 700–800 of which survive. Tumas worked on publishing various religious literature. In 1898, he translated and published a short and simple catechism by Roch Filochowski. In 1904, it was republished for the third time. He published a collection of sermons by priest Antanas Bortkevičius in 1901 and a work on teetotalism by bishop Motiejus Valančius in 1915. He translated, but did not publish, a textbook on the study of the Gospel of Mark by Baron . He also assisted Juozapas Skvireckas with the first full Bible translation into Lithuanian (raised funds, proofread manuscripts, wrote an introduction).In 1929, he translated and published two further works by Valančius – polemic writings on Eastern Orthodoxy and autobiography. From the early years, Tumas collected manuscripts and biographical data of various Lithuanian writers and whenever possible published them. For example, poetry of  is known only from materials published by Tumas. He published obituaries and other biographical articles on Antanas Strazdas, Vincas Kudirka, Jonas Biliūnas, Kazimieras Jaunius, Maironis, and many others. These informal studies became impetus for his university career. His university lectures were published in various newspapers and magazines, eleven separate booklets in 1924–1925, and four-volumes in 1929. However, these studies were not systematic – Tumas grouped topics haphazardly, without regard to chronology or author's style, covering some authors in detail while skipping others entirely.He focused on biographies and not on literary works. Since he knew or worked with many of them, he provided many irrelevant anecdotal stories. Tumas himself considered his lectures not a history of the Lithuanian literature, but only material for such history. In 1919, he published a travel book Aplink Baltiją (Around the Baltic Sea). It was based on articles he published promoting the idea of a federation with Latvia, Estonia, Sweden, or Finland. In 1925, he published Jaunam veikėjui (To the Young Activist) with twenty essays on religious and public work. These essays could be classified as pastoral theology – friendly, informal, practical advice from Tumas to young priests without citations to theological works or the Bible.Legacy
Vaižgantas was known for encouraging younger authors and celebrating any accomplishments or signs of progress, and is sometimes referred to as "the diamond hunter" (deimančiukų ieškotojas) even if some of those diamonds would quickly turn out to be simple gravel. He is remembered as an energetic activists who lived according to the motto "love and be loved". In 2016, Seimas (Lithuanian parliament) declared 2019 the year of Tumas (it will be his 150th birth anniversary). In April 1934, a year after Tumas' death, Vytautas Magnus University allotted three rooms to a museum dedicated to Tumas. This museum, directed by Vincas Mykolaitis-Putinas, preserved Tumas' archives, furniture, household items, and library of more than 2,000 volumes. When the university was closed in 1942, Mykolaitis-Putinas took some of the photos and manuscripts to Vilnius University and the rest were purchased by the Maironis Museum. The items were held in storage until 1997 when a museum dedicated to Tumas was established in the Kaunas apartment where he lived and worked from 1920 until 1933.It is visited by about 4,500 people annually. Prior to becoming a museum, the apartment was used as a clergy house and its last resident was Ričardas Mikutavičius. In 1987–1991, a museum dedicated to Tumas and book smugglers was established in Ustronė, Panevėžys District Municipality. It occupies a former granary that was used by the Garšviai Book Smuggling Society to hide illegal books. Tumas visited the granary while he worked in Vadaktėliai in 1902–1905. Monuments to Tumas were unveiled in Svėdasai in 1937, in his native Maleišiai in 1989, and in Birštonas in 2016. The house where Tumas was born did not survive in its original location – it was sold in 1914 and moved to the nearby Kalviai village.There have been suggestions of purchasing the surviving house, moving it back to Maleišiai, and establishing a memorial museum. He was a subject of several monographs, including by Aleksandras Merkelis (published in 1934, republished in 1955 and 1989) focusing on his biography and activities, by Aldona Vaitiekūnienė (1982) and Algimantas Radzevičius (1987) focusing on his literary works, by Nijolė Lietuvninkaitė (2015) focusing on his personal library. A collection of his letters to the Klimai family was published in 1998; Aistė Kučinskienė completed her PhD thesis on Tumas' letters in 2016. A book with memoirs and essays about Tumas was published in 2009 (editor Alfas Pakėnas). In 1994, Kostas Ostrauskas published monodrama Vaižgantas. Over the next two decades it was performed by actor Ferdinandas Jakšys over a thousand times. Schools named after Tumas are located in Rokiškis (1933–1958 and since 1989), Radviliškis (since 1993), Svėdasai (since 1989), Kaunas (since 1999).About 24 streets in Lithuania, 15 in cities and 9 in towns, are named in honor of Tumas, including central streets in Plungė and Tauragė. Since 1991, Svėdasai hosts annual literary events at the end of September. Since 2002, during these events, the Lithuanian Writers' Union and the  present a joint Juozas Tumas-Vaižgantas Award to writers that successfully combine and balance writing fiction and journalist work. On 20 September 2019, celebrating the 150th birth anniversary of <mask> Tumas-Vaižgantas, a monument for him and his dog Kaukas was unveiled near the Church of Vytautas the Great in Kaunas, Lithuania. References
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Bibliography

1869 births
1933 deaths
People from Anykščiai District Municipality
People from Vilkomirsky Uyezd
Lithuanian Roman Catholic priests
Party of National Progress politicians
Lithuanian male writers
Lithuanian novelists
Lithuanian short story writers
Lithuanian non-fiction writers
Lithuanian newspaper editors
Lithuanian literature historians
Lithuanian book smugglers
Vytautas Magnus University faculty
Members of the Third Order of Saint Francis
Recipients of the Order of the Lithuanian Grand Duke Gediminas
Recipients of the Order of Vytautas the Great
Male non-fiction