Jawdat Haydar's Poetic Legacy

Book excerpt: Jawdat R. Haydar (1905–2006) was a prominent Lebanese poet from Baalbek, who contributed to world literature in the English language, and was the author of several books of poetry, including Voices (1980), Echoes (1989), and Shadows (1998). In 2006, he published his last book of poems, 101 Selected Poems, at the age of 101. Haydar was the recipient of several awards, including the Lebanese Order of the Cedars, the Gold Medal of Lebanese Merit, the Croix de Grand Officier of France, and a papal medal from Pope John XXIII for his humanitarian work. This edited volume of the proceedings of the first Jawdat Haydar international conference held at the Lebanese American University on April 24 2013 comprises scholarly papers on the English-language poems of the Lebanese poet. It will appeal to both an academic and non-academic readership interested in the field of 20th century English-language world literature. It will also be of use to those specialising in the comparative literature of the Middle East and the literary history of Anglo-Arabic influences in terms of the English poetical movements of Romanticism and Modernism and their reception in the Anglophone literary circles of the Arab world. Also included is a valuable appendix of digitised images containing a selection of Jawdat Haydar’s handwritten poems from the collection of archived papers held at the Jawdat R. Haydar Memorial Study Room in the Riyad Nassar Library at the Lebanese American University, Beirut. Valuable for scholars and of interest to the general reader alike, it is the first time digitised images of Haydar’s handwritten poems have ever been published.