전숙희 田淑禧

Essayist, president of the Korean Center of International PEN who opened the Dongseo Literature Museum (pen name Byeokgang)

Life & career

Jeon Suk-hui (田淑禧, 1919-2010) was an essayist and cultural activist of the Damyang clan, with the pen name Byeokgang (璧江). Wikipedia says she was born in Wonsan, South Hamgyeong, lived briefly in Hamheung, grew up in Gyeongseong and graduated from the literature department of Ewha Women's College.

She began writing in 1938 by publishing the short story "An Old Woman Going to the Countryside" in Yeoseong. After liberation she worked as an interpreter under the US military government, returned to writing after it withdrew in 1948, and began her full career as an essayist with the 1954 collection Tangjaui byeon. Her essay collections include Igugui jeongseo, Najikan malsoriro, Yeonghonui tteure naerineun bi and Gajin geoseun eopseodo, and pieces such as "Life Is Joyful" are known.

She served as president of the Korean Center of International PEN from 1983 to 1991, held the 1988 International PEN Congress in Seoul inviting writers from both Cold War camps, and was elected lifetime international vice-president at the Paris PEN committee in 1991. In 1993 she founded the Kyewon schools with her younger brother Jeon Rak-won, and in 1997 she opened the Dongseo Literature Museum (now the Korea Modern Literature Museum), Korea's first modern-literature archive. She received the National Academy of Arts Award, the German Goethe Medal, the Russian Pushkin Medal and, in 2005, the Silver Crown Order of Cultural Merit.

The Texture of Her Essays

Wikipedia describes her essays as expressing the emotional, sentimental psychology of women in a modest style, and from the 1970s mainly dealing with the joy of life, everyday happiness and love for family and friends. This is Wikipedia's summary; no separate scholarly assessment was found.

Building Cultural Institutions

Alongside writing she devoted herself to founding a literary archive and schools. The Dongseo Literature Museum is described as Korea's first modern-literature archive, and the Kyewon foundation led to schools such as Kyewon High School of the Arts and the Kyewon University of Art and Design.

Descendants

She founded the Kyewon schools with her younger brother Jeon Rak-won.

Other 담양 전씨 figures