Editing Edmond Jabès (section)

== Life ==
The son of a prominent Jewish family in Egypt going back to the 19th century, he was born and brought up in Cairo where he received a classical French education. He began publishing in French and writing for the theater at an early age. From the 1930s on, he was active in Cairo's artistic and literary avant-garde culture, while also nurturing relationships with poets and publishers in France. He was made a Knight of the Legion of Honor in 1952 for his literary accomplishments. 

When Egypt expelled most of its Jewish population ([[Suez Crisis]]), Jabès fled to Paris in 1957. There he was welcomed by the literary community as a Surrealist-influenced poet, but a confrontation with French anti-semitism and the shadow of the Shoah prompted him to make a radical change in his writing, resulting in the multi-volume "Book of Questions." His work after exile from Egypt reflects a consciousness deeply troubled by the brutal reality of Auschwitz. His work exhibits a profound sense of melancholy and an acute sense that the Jew is constituted and always remains in exile. It also highlights the importance of offering welcome to foreigners, a central theme in his last book, "The Book of Hospitality." He became a French citizen in 1967; the same year he received the honor of being one of four French writers (alongside [[Sartre]], [[Albert Camus|Camus]], and [[Lévi-Strauss]]) to present his works at the World Exposition in [[Montreal|Montréal]]. Further accolades followed—the ''Prix des Critiques'' in 1972, and a commission as an officer in the [[Legion of Honor]] in 1986. In 1987, he received France's Grand National Prize for Poetry (Grand Prix national de la poésie). Jabès's cremation ceremony took place at [[Père Lachaise Cemetery]] a few days after his death; he was the victim of a heart attack in his apartment on the rue de l'Épée-de-Bois, dying  at age 78.