Naine kirjutab lindudest. Ökofeministlik ekskurss eesti looduskirjandusse

Abstract

This article discusses the first book of Estonian nature writing authored by a woman: “Vilsandi Bird Kingdom” (Vilsandi linnuriik) by Alma Toom, published in Tartu by the publishing house Loodus in 1932. Alma Toom, also spelled Thom (1903–1944 or 1945), was a schoolteacher on the small island of Vilsandi and the spouse of the overseer of the Vilsandi bird protection area, Artur Toom. Her sole published book, “Vilsandi Bird Kingdom”, was based on her husband’s oral stories narrated to the visitors of the bird islands and her own personal observations of nesting waterfowl on Vaika islands in the westernmost part of Estonian coastal waters. The publication of the book was supported by outstanding Estonian naturalists working at the University of Tartu’s Kuusnõmme biology station near Vilsandi at the time – Johannes Piiper, Johannes Käis, Henrik Koppel. The book provides an overview of the cultural and natural history of the inhabi­tants of Vilsandi and the surrounding islands, with an emphasis on several species of waterfowl and observations of their behaviour. It is one of the finest pieces of Estonian nature writing from the first half of the 20th century, and the only one written by a woman author from that period. During World War II, Alma Toom was deported to Nagorsk, Kirov oblast, Russia. The exact place and time of her death remain unknown. The article re-reads her text within the ecofeminist framework, drawing parallels with Susan A. Rosen’s discussion of Rachel Carson’s and Anne Morrow Lindbergh’s books on coastal nature, which can also cast a new light onto Toom’s depictions of coastal habitats and ornithological observations from the pre-war Vilsandi.

Keywords

• nature writing
• woman writer
• alma toom
• ecofeminism
• ornithology