Laurynas Ivinskis

Laurynas Rokas Ivinskis (15 August 1810 – 29 July 1881) was a Lithuanian teacher, publisher, translator, and lexicographer. He is best known for a series of annual calendars published between 1846 and 1877. The calendars were the first to publish Antanas Baranauskas' most famous poem The Forest of Anykščiai.

Born into a Samogitian noble family, Ivinskis attended gymnasium in Kolainiai. His studies were interrupted by the Uprising of 1831. He did not have funds for a university and worked as a tutor for various local noble families. In 1854, Ivinskis managed to get a job at a government-run primary school and taught in Rietavas and Joniškėlis. In 1864, Tsarist authorities enacted the Lithuanian press ban which prohibited publishing Lithuanian texts in the Latin alphabet. Ivinskis joined a government commission which worked to publish Lithuanian texts in the Cyrillic script. He came to oppose the press ban and left the commission in 1866. He returned to tutoring. His students included Gabrielė Petkevičaitė-Bitė, brothers Gabriel and Stanisław Narutowicz, and Vladimir Zubov. In 1874–1879, Ivinskis worked as a teacher at a music school established in Rietavas by Bogdan Michał Ogiński.

During his life, Ivinskis published only two works – his annual calendars and Genovaitė, a translation of the sentimental story Genovefa by Christoph von Schmid. The calendars were the first periodic Lithuanian publication in the Russian Empire. They included articles with practical medical, agricultural, etc. advice to Lithuanian peasants. The calendars are valued for including a literary section which published examples of Lithuanian folklore, didactic stories, and original and translated poems. His translations of Night-Thoughts and A Poem on the Last Day by Edward Young were published in the 1890s in the United States. In 1856, he worked on establishing Aitvaras, the first Lithuanian newspaper, but the project was not approved by the Tsarist authorities. Ivinskis wrote many other works, including three unfinished Lithuanian dictionaries and a Lithuanian grammar. His illustrated mushroom atlas was to be exhibited at the 1873 Vienna World's Fair but was lost in transit. He established contacts with the Russian Geographical Society and sent them a collection of Lithuanian proverbs and riddles.