20 March 1920-6 February 2011
Andrée SAAB was born in Cairo, Egypt to Alice (Khoury-Haddad) GODEL and Selim SAAB. Her mother's family was from Damascus, Syria and her father's family was from Baabda in Lebanon.
In 1942 she married Louis CHEDID.
Both her son Louis Chedid and her grandson Matthieu Chedid, also known as -M-, are popular pop and rock singers in France. She contributed song lyrics to her grandson including that of Bonoboo on the 1999 album Je dis aime. Her granddaughter Émilie Chedid (born in 1970) is a French director, Joseph Chedid (born in 1986), also known by his stage name of Selim, is a French singer and Anna Chedid (born in 1987), also known by her stage name of Nach, is also a French singer.
A prominent voice of her generation, a master of poetic images and a tireless writer of prose, Andrée Chedid bridged the two cultures of France and the Middle East for over sixty years. Chedid, who was born in Cairo with ancestral ties to Lebanon and Syria, spent most of her life in France. She began her elementary education in Egypt, completed her secondary education in Paris, and received a degree in journalism from the American University in Cairo in 1942. In 1946, she became a French citizen by choice, and lived in Paris until her death on February 6, 2011 at the age of 90. Chedid, a great contemporary writer of French literature, received numerous awards.
A prolific author, Chedid wrote twenty-three volumes of poetry, not counting her illustrated poetry, eighteen novels, more than a hundred short stories, six plays and children's books. As a result, three countries, France, Lebanon and Egypt claim her for their own literary heritage. Chedid always insisted that poetry was her favorite genre to which she returned "as though it were the essential spring."
Andrée Chedid published her first collection of poems On the Trails of my Fancy in 1943 in Cairo. She settled in Paris with her husband in 1946 and began writing there. In addition to numerous poems and novels, she also wrote plays and children's books mainly published by the publisher Groupe Flammarion . Her poetry books were partly illustrated by the Luxembourg painter Roger Bertemes .
In 1972, Chedid received the Prix de l'Aigle d'or for poetry followed by numerous other literary awards. For her books Fraternité de la parole and Cérémonial de la violence in 1976 she was awarded the Prix Mallarmé .
Her best-known work is novel L'Autre which has been translated into many languages and tells of the rescue from an earthquake spilled by an ancient Egyptian. It was made into a movie in 1991 by Bernard Giraudeau under the title L'Autre.
Andrée Chedid was also awarded the Grand Prize of the Société des Auteurs et Compositeurs Dramatiques, the Grand Prize of the Société des auteurs, compositeurs et éditeurs de musique (SACEM) in 1999 and the Prix Goncourt of poetry.
Awards
1966 Louise Labe prize
1975 Grand Prize of French Literature from the Royal Academy of Belgium
1976 Mallarmé prize
1979 Prix Goncourt de la Nouvelle, Le Corps et le Temps
1989 Prix Culture et Bibliothèques pour tous, L'Enfant multiple
1990 Grand prix de poésie de la SGDL literary award
1990 Gutenberg Prize (France)
1994 Grand prix de littérature Paul-Morand (for her entire work)
1996 Albert Camus Prize
2001 Prix Louis-Guilloux, The Message
2002 Prix Goncourt de la Poésie
2009 Grand Officier de la Légion d'honneur
