Charles Corm
| Charles Corm | |
|---|---|
 |
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| Born |
March 4, 1894 Beirut, Lebanon |
| Died | 1963 (aged 69) Beirut, Lebanon |
| Occupation | Writer, industrialist and philanthropist |
| Nationality | Lebanese |
| Notable works | The Sacred Mountain |
| Notable awards | Edgar Allan Poe International Prize of Poetry 1934 |
| Spouse | Samia Baroody |
| Children | David, Hiram, Virginie and Madeleine |
Charles Corm (1894-1963) was a Lebanese writer, billionaire industrialist and philanthropist. He is considered to be the leader of the Phoenicianism movement in Lebanon which ignited a surge of nationalism that led to Lebanon's independence. In a country torn by sectarian conflicts, Corm's intention was to find a common root shared by all Lebanese beyond their religious beliefs (the Phoenicians were pagans). Nowhere is this message of unity more clearly stated than in Corm's literary masterpiece, The Sacred Mountain: "It is because back in their Times, long before we had become Muslims and Christians, we were a single nation united in the same glorious past that Today, having grown in what we have become, we owe it to ourselves to love one another in the same way we did when we were still splendid humanist pagans."
Over the course of his life, Corm received more than 100 international literary and non-literary honors and awards, including the Edgar Allan Poe International Poetry Prize 1934, Citizen of Honor of New York City (USA), Grand Commander of the American International Academy (USA), Commander of the Order of Human Merit (Switzerland), Grand Officer of the Italian Academic Order (Italy), Grand Officer of the National Order of the Cedar (Lebanon), Grand Officer of the French Poets' Society (France), Fellow of the Royal Society (England) and the Medal of Honor of the Académie Française 1950 (France).
Although most Lebanese authors at the time wrote in Arabic, Corm mostly wrote in French. One of his main intellectual contributions is La Revue Phénicienne, a publication he founded in July 1919 in which many writers such as Khalil Gibran, Michel Chiha and Said Akl took part and which inspired Lebanon's independence. Rushdy Maalouf, the father of Académie Française member and Francophone novelist Amin Maalouf wrote: "Charles was the first one to show us how to love Lebanon, how to chant and rhapsodize Lebanon, how to vaunt and defend Lebanon, and how to become master-builders of this Lebanon."
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