Albert Cohen

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Albert Cohen (August 16, 1895, Corfu, Greece - October 17, 1981, Geneva, Switzerland) was a Greek-born Romaniote Jewish Swiss novelist who wrote in French. He worked as a civil servant for various international organizations, such as the International Labour Organization. He became a Swiss citizen in 1919.

Biography

Born Abraham Albert Cohen in Corfu, Greece, in 1895, to Greek Jewish parents. Albert’s parents, who owned a soap factory, moved to Marseille, France when he was a child. Albert Cohen discusses this period in his novel "Le livre de ma mère" (The Book of my Mother). He studied at a private Catholic school. In 1904, he started high school at Lycée Thiers, and graduated in 1913.

In 1914, he left Marseille for Geneva, Switzerland and enrolled in Law school. He graduated from Law School in 1917 and enrolled in Literature School in 1917 until 1919. In 1919, he became a Swiss citizen. That same year he married Elisabeth Brocher. In 1921, they gave birth to a daughter, Myriam. In 1924 his wife died of cancer. In 1925, Albert Cohen became director of Revue Juive (The Jewish Review), a periodical whose writers include Albert Einstein and Sigmund Freud. From 1926 to 1931, he served as a civil servant in Geneva. In 1931 He married his second wife, Marianne Goss.

During the German occupation, in 1940, Cohen fled to Bordeaux, then to London. The Jewish Agency for Palestine then made him responsible to establish contacts with exiled governments. On January 10, 1943, Cohen’s mother died in Marseille. That same year, he met his future third wife, Bella Berkowich. In 1944, he became an attorney for the Intergovernmental Committee for Refugees. In 1947, Cohen returned to Geneva. In 1957, He turned down the post of Israeli Ambassador in order to pursue his literary career.

He is buried in the Jewish Cemetery of Veyrier, near Geneva.

Cohen's literature

Through four different books, Cohen's fiction can be considered as one long autobiographical fiction. It is the story of the radiant Solal - Cohen's double - the handsome and successful civil servant of the League of Nations whose charismatic identity is a constant struggle between his Jewish roots and his social status.

His masterpiece, Belle du Seigneur, originally included the novel that was later published as Les valeureux. Belle du Seigneur is called "the book of love", and tells Solal's passionate, cruel yet realistic love affair with Ariane Deume - a married non-Jewish woman. In 1968, the novel received the French Academy award. Since then, the novel has been one of the biggest sellers of the prestigious Gallimard White Collection.

Novels, plays, autobiographical works

• Paroles juives - (1921) (Jewish Words)
• Ezéchiel - (1927) - play
• Solal - (1930) translated as Solal of the Solals - (1933)
• Mangeclous - (1938) translated as Nailcruncher - (1940)
• Le livre de ma mère - (1954) translated as Book of my Mother - (1997)
• Belle du Seigneur - (1968) Grand Prix du roman de l'Académie française translated under the same title - (1995)
• Les valeureux - (1970)
• Ô vous, frères humains - (1972) (O Humans, My Brothers)
• Carnets - (1978, 1979) (Notes)

See also

• Le Monde's 100 Books of the Century, a list which includes Belle du Seigneur

References

"Albert Cohen." Wikipédia, l'encyclopédie libre. 11 mar 2010, 19:03 UTC. 14 mar 2010, 13:24 <http://fr.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Albert_Cohen&oldid=51026606>.

"Cohen, Albert from Jewish Writers of the Twentieth Century", Further references, related titles, by David Coward. Bookrags 18 June 2010, 11:58 <http://www.bookrags.com/tandf/cohen-albert-tf/>

"Albert Cohen" literary review, especially "Belle du Seigneur" 18 June 2010 12:06 <http://everything2.com/title/Albert+Cohen>

External links

• (French) Atelier Albert Cohen