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.

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.

[6] Long studies followed by private lessons to make a living negatively impacted Tumas' health and he frequently contracted respiratory illnesses.

[13] 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 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.

[24] In Mitau, Tumas found a group of Lithuanians, including linguist Jonas Jablonskis and attorney Antanas Kriščiukaitis, and often attended their gatherings.

[32] 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.

[38] His friends, particularly former classmate Antanas Kaupas [lt], encouraged him to flee to United States, but Adomas Jakštas who was deported for five years to Ustyuzhna persuaded him to stay.

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.

[45] 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.

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.

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)[55] and continued to care for the finances of Tėvynės sargas.

[59] 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.

[62] 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.

[67] 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.

[73] 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.

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.

[80] In November 1910, Tumas published an article listing known churches where Lithuanian-language services were removed by orders of Kazimierz Mikołaj Michalkiewicz [pl], administrator of the Diocese of Vilnius while Bishop von der Ropp was in exile.

[94] In summer 1914, Juozapas Bikinas [lt], 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.

Tumas and others organized refugee relief – opening shelters and soup kitchens, providing clothes and basic medical care, finding employment.

[100] In his fundraising efforts, Tumas met with various Latvian activists, including Jānis Čakste and Alberts Kviesis, future Presidents of Latvia.

[101] 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.

Together with Juozas Kubilius [lt] and Liudas Noreika, both former contributors to Viltis, Tumas established the Party of National Progress in 1916, but it became publicly active in early 1917.

Lithuanians, represented by nine men, including Augustinas Voldemaras and Antanas Tumėnas, were the only participating ethnic group to demand full independence.

[126] 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.

Tumas solicited donations, hired workers for repairs and artists Paulius Galaunė, Petras Kalpokas, Alfonsas Janulis [lt] for decoration.

[144] 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).

[172] The final scenes of Gondingos kraštas depict a double marriage that contains borrowed elements from Pan Tadeusz by Adam Mickiewicz.

[167] 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.

[21] On 20 September 2019, celebrating the 150th birth anniversary of Juozas Tumas-Vaižgantas, a monument for him and his dog Kaukas was unveiled near the Church of Vytautas the Great in Kaunas, Lithuania.