Frans Eemil Sillanpää was a Finnish writer. In 1939, he became the first Finnish writer to be awarded the Nobel Prize for Literature "for his deep understanding of his country's peasantry and the exquisite art with which he has portrayed their way of life and their relationship with Nature". The Nobel Prize in Literature 1939, announced November 10, 1939. Frans Eemil Sillanpää, “for his deep understanding of his country's peasantry and the exquisite art with which he has portrayed their way of life and their relationship with Nature”. Frans Eemil Sillanpää: born 1888, Hämeenkyrö, Russian Empire (now Finland). Wiki link Data: the Nobel Foundation (CC0).