Happy Birthday Sadegh Hedayat

Happy Birthday Sadegh Hedayat, the immortal open-minded author of Persia.

Père Lachaise Cemetery is full of graves that are alive for me. Indeed, Père Lachaise is bigger than what it seems. When I got there I first wanted to find Sadegh Hedayat, Open-minded author of the book "The Blind Owl" which I had read years ago. Believe it or not, years ago before I read his books, I've found some translitions of books by Franz Kafka which he had done before. His skillful use of words and creativity of translation made me realize that a superb writer is behind the pen. Yes, thereafter I fell in love with his modernist literature. Sadegh Hedayat, (February 17, 1903 in Tehran – April 9, 1951 in Paris) was an Persian 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. At the end of 1950, Hedayat left Iran for Paris. There, on 9 April 1951, he committed suicide by gassing himself in a small rented apartment on 37 Rue Championnet. He had plugged all the gaps in the windows and door with cotton and, so it would not burden anyone, he had placed the money (a hundred thousand francs) for his shroud and burial in his side wallet in plain view. He was buried at the division 85 of Père Lachaise Cemetery. His funeral was attended by a number of intimate friends and close acquaintances, both Iranian and French.

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