Sadeq Hedayat
| The fiction writer and scholar S‰deq Hed‰yat (1903-1951) came from a prominent and educated Tehr‰n family and attended Tehr‰nÕs best schools. In 1926 he went to Europe to pursue university studies, but spent his four years there mostly getting familiar with European literature and intellectual currents. Shortly after returning to Tehr‰n in 1930, he published a collection of short stories called Zendeh be-gur [Buried Alive]. The collections Seh qatreh khun [Three Drops of Blood] (1932), S‰yehÕrowshan [Chiaroscuro] (1933), V‰gh v‰gh s‰h‰b [Mr. Bow Wow] (1933) and Sag-e velgard [The Stray Dog] (1942) followed, and a longer story called ÔAlaviyeh kh‰nom (1933), as well as books on various literary and cultural subjects. A sampling of HedayatÕs short stories appears in Sadeq Hedayat: An Anthology (1979). The much translated story from Three Drops of Blood called ÒD‰sh åkolÓ inspired a major Iranian motion picture in 1970. Hed‰yatÕs fame as IranÕs best known literary figure since the medieval lyric poet H‰fez (c.1320-c.1390) and the controversy which still surrounds his career rest primarily on his short novel called Buf-e kur [The Blind Owl] (1937, 1941), IranÕs most most talked about piece of fiction which is available in several paperback English editions (New York, NY: Grove Press, 1957; Evergreen Black Cat Edition, 1969; and Weidenfeld, 1989). Michael Beard traces European influences in The Blind Owl as a Western Novel (1990), while the essays in Hed‰yatÕs ÔThe Blind OwlÕ Forty Years After (1978), which features a Hed‰yat bibliography, analyze Iranian elements in the novel. Hed‰yat published another novella called H‰ji åq‰ in 1945, published in translation as H‰ji ågh‰: Portrait of an Iranian Cinfiudence Man in 1979. Hed‰yatÕs vituperative attack on religious customs called Tup-e morv‰ri [The Pearl Cannon], written in 1947, remained unpublished for thirty years. Never married, Hed‰yat left Tehr‰n for Europe at the end of 1950 and committed suicide in Paris that April. |
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