Springtime in Lithuania: Youthful Memories 1920-1940
Hypatia Ycas

Copyright 2000
International Standard Book Number: 1-929612-19-2
Library of Congress Catalog Card Number: 00-192952

The years of Hypatia Ycas’ youth (1920-1940), the springtime of her life, were also springtime in the life of Lithuania, the country in which she grew up. This small land of Northeastern Europe was recovering from the ashes and devastation of World War I. It had just declared national independence when the author and her family arrived in Kaunas, the provisional capital. Hypatia lived there until the fateful year of 1940, when freedom was extinguished by the invasion of Soviet Russian troops.

The author grew up at a time remote from the modern computer age, when people still traveled by horse and buggy and by train. When their peaceful life was disrupted, the author and her family took the only way out—they walked across the border, leaving all possessions behind. After many months of travel as refugees, the family finally reached the fabled land of the USA, the place of her mother’s birth. During sojourns in Spain, Portugal, and Brazil, the Statue of Liberty beckoned them from afar. It was reached only when the steamship landed in the Port of New York.

This book, however, is not just another autobiography. The author’s father was a statesman and active participant in public affairs of his country. In the Introduction, Ambassador Simutis, a leading Lithuanian diplomat, says, “The author’s brief character sketches of people who impressed her as well as her readable style of presentation add to the interest of this work.”