The idea to publish a luxurious and lavishly illustrated edition of the poem The Yearby the pioneer of Lithuanian literature Kristijonas Donelaitis came to the members of the Twenty-Seventh Book Lovers Society, a bibliophile organisation based in Kaunas. They chose Vytautas Kazimieras Jonynas out of several young graphic artists, who had trained at Kaunas Art School and perfected his skills in Paris. He came to the notice of Lithuanian book connoisseurs not only for his work, but also for his knowledge of the history and the theory of book art. The project to publish this poem by Donelaitis was taken over from the bibliophile society by the Ministry of Education, in order to emphasise the national importance of the undertaking. Jonynas did not disappoint them. He looked at well-known examples of classics of Soviet book illustration, such as Vladimir Favorsky and Alexey Kravchenko, and produced woodcuts for opening and closing vignettes, and page illustrations for all four parts of the poem. His success in rendering the mood of the poem and the main points of the story in contemporary language was recognised when he won the State Award in 1939. The book was printed not only by the government that had commissioned it, but also by the Soviet occupiers, who appropriated Lithuanian cultural property. The poemThe Yearwas also reprinted in 1941, during the occupation by Nazi Germany. In both these cases, the book, and with it the illustrations by Jonynas, acquired an additional meaning, as a symbol for the preservation of the nation and the national culture.