Wadad Makdisi Cortas (1909 - 1979) (in Arabic "وداد مقدسي قرطاس") was a Palestinian-Lebanese educator and memoirist.

Early life

Wadad Makdisi grew up in an educated family in Beirut, and attended Ahliah National School for Girls as a child.

Career

Cortas worked at her alma mater, the Ahliah National School for Girls, for forty years, as a teacher and then for 26 years as principal, before she retired in 1972. She also taught at

Beirut College for Women The Lebanese American University (LAU) ( ar, الجامعة اللبنانية الأميركية) is a secular and private American university located in Lebanon. It is chartered by the board of regents of the University of the State of New Y ...

, and was on the board of the

Academie Libanaise des Beaux Arts The Lebanese Academy of Fine Arts (ALBA; french: Académie libanaise des Beaux-Arts; ar, الأكاديمية اللبنانية للفنون الجميلة) was originally a stand-alone Lebanese institute, now one of the faculties at the Unive ...

. Cortas's memoir, ''Dunia Ahbab-tuha'' (''A World I Loved'') was published in Arabic in the 1960s. She translated the memoir into English and updated it in her retirement; the revised version was published posthumously, with a foreword by

Nadine Gordimer Nadine Gordimer (20 November 192313 July 2014) was a South African writer and political activist. She received the 1991 Nobel Prize in Literature, Nobel Prize in Literature in 1991, recognized as a writer "who through her magnificent epic writin ...

, in 2009. In 2012, a stage adaptation of Cortas's book, starring Vanessa Redgrave, was produced first at the Brighton Festival, then at Columbia University, and in 2015 at the Spoleto Festival in Italy.

Personal life

Cortas married a businessman from

Brummana Brummana ( ar, برمانا) is a town in the Matn District of the Mount Lebanon Governorate in Lebanon. It is located east of Beirut, overlooking the capital and the Mediterranean. Brummana has long been a summer destination for visitors and loca ...

, Emile Cortas, who founded the canning company Cortas. They had four children, including the writer

Mariam C. Said Mariam C. Said ( ar, مريم سعيد) is an American writer and activist. Biography Mariam C. Said was born and raised in Beirut, Lebanon, to Quaker parents who were of Palestinian and Lebanese origin. Her father, Emile Cortas, was the leadin ...

. Cortas had a stroke in 1972 with lasting effects; she died in 1979, aged 70 years. Her granddaughter

Najla Said Najla Said (born 1974, Boston, Massachusetts, United States) is a Palestinian-American author, actress, playwright, and activist. Through her literary and academic work, Said has confronted racism, stereotyping, social and economic inequality, and ...

is an actress and playwright in New York City.Felicia R. Lee
"Identity Found: On West Side via West Bank"
''New York Times'' (February 9, 2010): C1.

References

1909 births 1979 deaths Lebanese writers 20th-century Lebanese women writers Lebanese women memoirists {{authority control