Suhayl Idris (1925 – February 19, 2008) was a Lebanese novelist, short-story writer, journalist and translator.

Biography

Idris studied in

Beirut Beirut ( ; ) is the Capital city, capital and largest city of Lebanon. , Greater Beirut has a population of 2.5 million, just under half of Lebanon's population, which makes it the List of largest cities in the Levant region by populatio ...

before going on to study in Paris and receive a PhD from Sorbonne. His first collection, ''Ashwaq'', was published in 1947. Idriss returned to Beirut in 1952 where he founded ''

Al Adab ''Al Adab'' () was an Arabic avant-garde existentialist literary print magazine published in Beirut, Lebanon, in the period 1953–2012. It was restarted in 2015 as an online-only publication. ''Encyclopædia Britannica'' describes it as one of t ...

'', a monthly literary journal that became one of the leading periodicals of its kind. Several of his novels have autobiographical themes, including ''al-Hayy al-Latini'' (1954) and ''al-Khandaq al-ghamiq'' (1958). Idris also translated many European works, including most of

Jean-Paul Sartre Jean-Paul Charles Aymard Sartre (, ; ; 21 June 1905 – 15 April 1980) was a French philosopher, playwright, novelist, screenwriter, political activist, biographer, and literary criticism, literary critic, considered a leading figure in 20th ...

and

Albert Camus Albert Camus ( ; ; 7 November 1913 – 4 January 1960) was a French philosopher, author, dramatist, journalist, world federalist, and political activist. He was the recipient of the 1957 Nobel Prize in Literature at the age of 44, the s ...

. He had a pro-

Nasserist Nasserism ( ) is an Arab nationalist and Arab socialist political ideology based on the thinking of Gamal Abdel Nasser, one of the two principal leaders of the Egyptian Revolution of 1952, and Egypt's second President. Spanning the domestic a ...

and

Arab nationalist Arab nationalism () is a political ideology asserting that Arabs constitute a single nation. As a traditional nationalist ideology, it promotes Arab culture and civilization, celebrates Arab history, the Arabic language and Arabic literatur ...

political stance. Idris died on February 19, 2008.

References

1925 births 2008 deaths University of Paris alumni Writers from Beirut 20th-century Lebanese writers Lebanese translators Translators to Arabic Translators from French 20th-century translators Lebanese magazine founders Arab nationalists Lebanese Arab nationalists {{Lebanon-translator-stub