Phạm Duy Khiêm (24 April 1908 – 2 December 1974) was a Vietnamese writer, academic and

South Vietnam South Vietnam, officially the Republic of Vietnam ( vi, Việt Nam Cộng hòa), was a state in Southeast Asia that existed from 1955 to 1975, the period when the southern portion of Vietnam was a member of the Western Bloc during part of th ...

ambassador in France. He was the son of the writer

Phạm Duy Tốn Phạm Duy Tốn (1881 – 25 February 1924) was a Vietnamese writer. He was father of the songwriter Phạm Duy and French language writer and ambassador Phạm Duy Khiêm. Tốn graduated from the French School of Interpreters, and became part o ...

, and brother of songwriter

Phạm Duy Phạm Duy (5 October 1921 – 27 January 2013) was one of Vietnam's most prolific songwriters with a musical career that spanned more than seven decades through some of the most turbulent periods of Vietnamese history and with more than one ...

Paris

In Paris at the

lycée Louis-le-Grand The Lycée Louis-le-Grand (), also referred to simply as Louis-le-Grand or by its acronym LLG, is a public Lycée (French secondary school, also known as sixth form college) located on rue Saint-Jacques in central Paris. It was founded in the ...

from 1929 his circle included

Léopold Sédar Senghor Léopold Sédar Senghor (; ; 9 October 1906 – 20 December 2001) was a Senegalese poet, politician and cultural theorist who was the first president of Senegal (1960–80). Ideologically an African socialist, he was the major theoretician o ...

and

Georges Pompidou Georges Jean Raymond Pompidou ( , ; 5 July 19112 April 1974) was a French politician who served as President of France from 1969 until his death in 1974. He previously was Prime Minister of France of President Charles de Gaulle from 1962 to 196 ...

. He won the Prix

Louis Barthou Jean Louis Barthou (; 25 August 1862 – 9 October 1934) was a French politician of the Third Republic who served as Prime Minister of France for eight months in 1913. In social policy, his time as prime minister saw the introduction (in Jul ...

of the

Académie française An academy (Attic Greek: Ἀκαδήμεια; Koine Greek Ἀκαδημία) is an institution of secondary education, secondary or tertiary education, tertiary higher education, higher learning (and generally also research or honorary membershi ...

for the autobiographical novel ''Nam et Sylvie'' 1942 under the pseudonym Nam Kim, then the Prix Littéraire d'Indochine in 1943 for ''Légendes des terres sereines''Littératures de la péninsule indochinoise Bernard Hue, Van Minh Tran, Alain Guillemin – 1999 Page 398 "PHAM DUY KHIÊM 1943 : Légendes des terres sereines – Ce recueil paru à Hanoi, couronné par le Prix d'Indochine, attire ... Le roman autobiographique Nam et Sylvie, paru l'année précédente sous le pseudonyme de Nam Kim, lui valut le Prix Louis Barthou de l'Académie française. Etait parue, à Hanoi, en 1944, une légende intitulée ''La Jeune femme de Nam Xuong''... ... type pas toujours présenté sous un jour favorable dans la littérature française qui l'associe à l'actualité coloniale." He earned his PhD from the

University of Toulouse The University of Toulouse (french: Université de Toulouse) was a university in the French city of Toulouse that was established by papal bull in 1229, making it one of the earliest universities to emerge in Europe. Suppressed during the Frenc ...

in 1957.

Ambassador

He was briefly ambassador to France for the

Ngô Đình Diệm Ngô Đình Diệm ( or ; ; 3 January 1901 – 2 November 1963) was a South Vietnamese politician. He was the final prime minister of the State of Vietnam (1954–1955), and then served as the first president of South Vietnam (Republic of ...

government 1954–1957, but turned down a second appointment as ambassador to

UNESCO The United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization is a specialized agency of the United Nations (UN) aimed at promoting world peace and security through international cooperation in education, arts, sciences and culture. It ...

because of his inability to support Diệm's policies.

Death

He committed suicide on 2 December 1974 at his home in Montreuil-le-Henri, Sarthe. In his youth, he had said "one must justify his existence on this earth" (''il faut justifier sa présence sur cette terre'').

Works

* ''Việt Nam văn phạm'' (with

Trần Trọng Kim Trần Trọng Kim (Chữ Nôm: ; 1883 – December 2, 1953), courtesy name Lệ Thần, was a Vietnamese scholar and politician who served as the Prime Minister of the short-lived Empire of Vietnam, a state established with the support of Impe ...

Bùi Kỷ Bùi ( Chữ Hán: 裴) is a common Vietnamese surname, ranked 9th among the most common surnames in Vietnam. The surname Pei (裴) in Chinese and Bae (배) in Korean share the same origin with it. Bui is also an Italian surname. Bùi may refe ...

, 1941) * ''De Hanoi à la Courtine'' (1941) * ''De la Courtine à Vichy'' (1942) * ''Mélanges'' (1942) * ''Légendes des Terres Sereines'' (1942) * ''La Jeune femme de Nam Xuong'' (1944) * ''Nam et Sylvie'' (1957) * ''La place d'un homme'' (1958) * ''Ma mère''

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Pham, Duy Khiem Vietnamese writers 1908 births 1974 deaths Suicides in France