Sādegh Hedāyat | |
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The last photograph he posted from Paris to his relatives in Tehran.(1951)
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Born |
Sādegh Hedāyat 17 February 1903 Tehran, Iran |
Died | 9 April 1951 Paris, France |
(aged 48)
Nationality | Iranian |
Known for | Writer of prose fiction and short stories |
Notable work |
The Blind Owl (Boof-e koor) |
The Blind Owl (Boof-e koor)
Buried Alive (Zendeh beh goor)
The Stray Dog (Sag-e velgard)
Sadegh (also spelled as Sadeq) Hedayat (Persian: صادق هدایت Persian pronunciation: [sɑːdəq hədɑːjæt] listen ; February 17, 1903 in Tehran – April 9, 1951 in Paris) was an Iranian writer, translator and intellectual. Best known for his novel The Blind Owl, he was one of the earliest Iranian writers to adopt literary modernism in their career.
Hedayat was born to a northern Iranian aristocratic family in Tehran (his great-grandfather Reza-Qoli Khan Hedayat was himself a well respected writer and worked in the government, as did other relatives) and was educated at Collège Saint-Louis (French catholic school) and Dar ol-Fonoon (1914–1916). In 1925, he was among a select few students who travelled to Europe to continue their studies. There, he initially went on to study engineering in Belgium, which he abandoned after a year to study architecture in France. There he gave up architecture in turn to pursue dentistry. In this period he became acquainted with Thérèse, a Parisian with whom he had a love affair. In 1927 Hedayat attempted suicide by throwing himself into the Marne, but was rescued by a fishing boat. After four years in France, he finally surrendered his scholarship and returned home in the summer of 1930 without receiving a degree. In Iran he held various jobs for short periods.