Joel Lehtonen (11 November 1881 – 20 November 1934) was a Finnish author, translator, critic and journalist. He was born in Sääminki (now part of Savonlinna). His childhood was fatherless and poverty-stricken, his mother suffered from mental frailties and Joel himself was forced into paupery. Joel's foster mother supported his schooling and Lehtonen was able to study literature for a few years in the University of Helsinki, but dropped out without completing a degree.
As an author, he began as a neoromanticist, but after the Finnish Civil War his outlook transformed into deep pessimism and disenchanted scepticism.
Having suffered for years from various ailments, he committed suicide by hanging himself with a rope, that had been used to wrap up a parcel of books, in November 1934.
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