August Ahlqvist

[1] He is best remembered as the sharpest critic of writer Aleksis Kivi, who later rose to the position of the national author of Finland.

He was the illegitimate child of Baron Johan Mauritz Nordenstam (1802–1882); his mother Maria Augusta Ahlqvist (1806–1886) was a servant.

Between 1856 and 1859, he studied Finno-Ugric languages in the areas of Volga River and the Ural Mountains.

Ahlqvist was also the first to translate the works of Johan Ludvig Runeberg (1804–1877) into Finnish.

His pungent criticism of Seitsemän veljestä by Aleksis Kivi (1834–1872) caused the publishers to postpone its publication.