Edmond Jabès

French writer and poet of Egyptian origin, and one of the best known literary figures writing in French after World War II. The work he produced when living in France in the late 1950s until his death in 1991 is highly original in form and breadth.

The son of a prominent Jewish family in Egypt going back to the 19th century, he was born and brought up in Cairo where he received a classical French education. He began publishing in French and writing for the theatre at an early age. From the 1930s on, he was active in Cairo's artistic and literary avant-garde culture, while also nurturing relationships with poets and publishers in France. He was made a Knight of the Legion of Honour in 1952 for his literary accomplishments.

When Egypt expelled most of its Jewish population (Suez Crisis), Jabès fled to Paris in 1957. There he was welcomed by the literary community as a Surrealist-influenced poet, but a confrontation with French anti-semitism and the shadow of the Shoah prompted him to make a radical change in his writing, resulting in the multi-volume "Book of Questions."

His work after exile from Egypt reflects a consciousness deeply troubled by the brutal reality of Auschwitz. His work exhibits a profound sense of melancholy and an acute sense that the Jew is constituted and always remains in exile. It also highlights the importance of offering welcome to foreigners, a central theme in his last book, "The Book of Hospitality."

He became a French citizen in 1967; the same year he received the honour of being one of four French writers (alongside Sartre, Camus, and Lévi-Strauss) to present his works at the World Exposition in Montréal. Further accolades followed—the Prix des Critiques in 1972, and a commission as an officer in the Legion of Honour in 1986. In 1987, he received France's Grand National Prize for Poetry (Grand Prix national de la poésie).