J. Rainis. Fire and Night. Latgosizdat, Riga, 1953. The play Fire and Night was written by Rainis on the eve of the 1905 revolution, when the Latvian people, together with the Russian people, rose up in battle for their liberation. Rainis took the poem “Lāčplēsis” by Andrejs Pumpurs from 1888, largely preserving its plot and composition, giving it a theatrical embodiment and making it sound anew. The play reflects Rainis’s desire to explore the philosophical idea of human development through overcoming obstacles, through the eternal striving forward. Illustrations by V. Valdmanis. Voldemar Valdmanis (1905-1966) was a Latvian and Soviet stage designer and graphic artist. People’s Artist of the Latvian SSR. He was a member of the artistic association “Green Crow,” and a member of the Union of Artists of Latvia. He worked as an assistant artist at the Workers’ and National Theatres (1928-1933), a set designer at the Latvian National Theatre (1933-1940), the People’s Theatre (1941-1944), the Dramatic Theatre (1944-1946), chief artist of the Riga Film Studio (1946-1947), and director of the Museum of Soviet Art of the Latvian SSR (1940-1941).