1952.

The Second World War made tens of thousands of people leave Latvia and seek refuge in other countries. Even in refugee camps, they created a community in which they carried on Latvian culture and a Latvian way of life. Just a few years after the end of World War II, Latvians living in exile felt the need to have in their possession once again folksongs in published form. The previous editions were unavailable – destroyed by the war or left behind in homes they had fled. Since folksongs were considered vital to the Latvian national identity and culture, they had to be recovered and the texts published in a new edition.

Dealing with limited resources, Imants Reitmanis published "Latviešu tautas dziesmas" in 12 volumes in Copenhagen, 1952-1956. This edition combined the texts of two most significant previous editions: Barons' Latvju Dainas (LD) and Tautas dziesmas (TDz) - the folksongs collected by the LFK and published with Prof. P. Šmits acting as the editor. The folksongs included in this new edition were mostly the so called main (those chosen as the ones to be published in full, and in comparison to which the variations were indicated) texts, each bearing a distinct identifying number and, in their original editions, positioned at the head of a song cluster. While only some of the variants of the primary songs were included in the Reitmanis' edition, the total number of songs in this edition is impressive and, most importantly, this edition ensured that the folksongs could once again be read by the Latvians in exile.

Reitmanis engaged Arveds Švābe, Kārlis Straubergs, and Edīte Hauzenberga-Šturma to edit the work. They kept the original numbering system of the songs and the original chapter titles. Thus, the reader can tell from the song's identifying number whether it is drawn from LD or from Tautas dziesmas. (The LD numbering ends with 35789, while songs numbered 35790 - 60080 are drawn from TDz.) The edition also includes research articles by exiled Latvian scholars. The edition, financed by subscribers, was published in 12 volumes, including the "nerātnās" 'bawdy' songs, which appeared as the final volume in 1956.

This edition was also utilized for the Boston-Montreal Dainas Project, which created dainas data bases in ASCII format in the 1980's. In 2006 this edition was published by the University of Virginia Electronic Text Center in an electronic XML format with word search capability. It can be accessed through the "Latviešu tautas dziesmas" home page. The editor of the electronic text is Maruta Lietiņa Ray.

She writes the following about her work with this electronic text project:

"The Reitmanis edition of Latviešu tautas dziesmas has been long out of print. Having grown up with the dainas and being an obsessive teacher, I have always thought that it would be extremely valuable to preserve this important work and to make it available to everyone in the world, free of charge, and in perpetuity. But how?

It was a stroke of luck that I was professor and assistant dean at the University of Virginia, the home of the renowned Electronic Text Center. The Center had already worked with approx. 70,000 texts in 14 languages, including Chinese, Japanese, Russian, even the Native American Apache language. In 2001 I began exploring the possibility of the Center's publishing the dainas in an electronic version. The Center was interested in the project because they had never worked with a language that had so many diacritical marks. Working with a Latvian text would be a challenge, and the Center could develop new skills in the process. The project came to fruition with the help of many kind people. They all deserve a most heartfelt thanks.

The first step in launching the project was obtaining permission from the publisher, Imants Reitmanis, since the Center strictly observes all copyright laws. Through the vast Latvian network I found the publisher's widow. Mrs. Reitmanis kindly gave the Center permission to proceed. Once her permission was received, the then director of the Center, David Seaman, approved the project in 2001.

The next step was securing funding, since the University of Virginia Library does not cover the costs of the text preparation. When in 2002 my mother, the former actress of the Latvian National Theater, Milda Zīlava, died, my husband, Prof. Benjamin Ray, and I established the Milda Zīlava Memorial Fund. The gifts of her friends, admirers, and family have covered all expenses.

The Center is also grateful to Imants Freibergs for permission to use his ASCII format keyboarding of the dainas, (the so called "Boston Montreal Dainas Data Base" produced in the 1980's with the help of a number of Latvian-American and Latvian-Canadian students), to create this XML searchable version.

All the technical work has been done by the American staff of the Electronic Text Center. Every year I have worked with the director or acting director, and one additional staff member, usually a University of Virginia student. The founder of the Electronic Text Center and its first director (1992-2002) was David Seaman, at present the director of the Digital Library Federation. You can read his biography here. Subsequently the work was continued by Michael J. Furlough, Matthew S. Gibson (2003-2005), and since the fall of 2005, Cindy Speer.

This is a brief history of this significant publication and the preparation of its electronic version. You are invited to read it for yourself!

The LFK thanks Maruta Lietiņa Ray for the provided information and her assistance in preparing this page