The only son of local Lithuanian nobles, Didžiulis received only partial high school education at the Panevėžys Gymnasium before it was closed after the failed Uprising of 1863.

For his support of the Russian Revolution of 1905 and participation in the activities of the Social Democratic Party of Lithuania, Didžiulis and his son Antanas were sentenced to lifetime deportation to Siberia.

He was then educated privately by Antanas Viskantas, priest in Andrioniškis, who shared his interest in books with Didžiulis and encouraged him to start a personal library.

In summer, their house was visited by various Lithuanian activists, including Jonas Jablonskis, Motiejus Čepas [lt], Mečislovas Davainis-Silvestraitis, Liudvikas Vaineikis.

[9] In 1895–1896, he organized several petitions of local peasants to Tsar Nicholas II of Russia asking to lift the Lithuanian press ban.

[10] When the ban was lifted in 1904, Didžiulis applied for a permit to open a Lithuanian, Polish, and Russian bookstore in Anykščiai but was denied because he was not politically reliable.

[8] Didžiulis supported the Russian Revolution of 1905 and participated in the activities of the Social Democratic Party of Lithuania.

[8] His house was searched by the Tsarist police in February 1906 which found a hectograph and anti-Tsarist social democratic brochures.

[8] He was released after the February Revolution in 1917 and moved to Yalta in Crimea where his wife Liudvika and daughter Vanda lived.

[13] Didžiulis spent considerable amount of time and effort tracking down old and rare Lithuanian books and corresponding with other bibliophiles, including Adalbert Bezzenberger, Karol Estreicher, Jan Aleksander Karłowicz [pl].

[12] His interest in books did not diminish after the Lithuanian press ban was lifted in 1904, but his activities were interrupted by the arrest and deportation to Siberia.

[19] The banned publications were hidden in wall cavity which was concealed by a large cupboard and which has survived to present day.

[15] Not discovered during police searches,[20] it is the only surviving original hiding place of Lithuanian book smugglers.

[22] The personal library included other miscellaneous books in other languages (Latvian, Belarusian, French, Latin) and other topics (hygiene, medicine, home economics, fiction) that were of interest to other family members.

[23] Since there were no Lithuanian libraries, Didžiulis' collection was used by various Lithuanian activists and researchers (including Antanas Baranauskas, Jonas Jablonskis, Liudas Vaineikis, Juozas Otonas Širvydas [lt], Jonas Basanavičius, Jurgis Šlapelis [lt], Mečislovas Davainis-Silvestraitis, Mykolas Biržiška) as well as local residents.

A handful of books remained in Griežionėlės and were donated to the Library of the Lithuanian Academy of Sciences or became part of the memorial museum established in 1968.

[28] In 1940, Vytautas the Great War Museum erected a wall to commemorate Lithuanian book smugglers.

[29] In 2007, the public library of the Anykščiai District Municipality was renamed after Didžiulis and his wife Liudvika Didžiulienė.