Charles Corm; An Intellectual Biography of a Twentieth Century Lebanese "Young Phoenician" (original) (raw)

Charles Corm: An Intellectual Biography of a Twentieth-Century Lebanese “Young Phoenician” is an inquiry into modern Middle Eastern history and Lebanese cultural and political life as incarnated in the ideas, times, and works of Charles Corm (1894–1963). As the poet laureate and guiding spirit of the “Young Phoenicians” movement, Charles Corm advocated for identity narratives that are often dismissed in the prevalent Arab nationalist paradigms dominating the canon of modern Middle Eastern history and political thought. But Corm was much more than a man of letters with a patriotic mission. As an entrepreneur, orator, philanthropist, and patron of the arts, he commanded great influence on Lebanese intellectual production and political life. In many respects, Charles Corm was “the conscience” of Lebanon during its transition from Ottoman domination to independent statehood. This book parses Corm as Patriot, Entrepreneur, Humanist, and Poet.