Lee Cheong-jun

Lee Cheong-jun (August 9, 1939 - July 31, 2008) was a prominent South Korean novelist. Throughout his four decade-long career, Lee wrote more than 100 short stories, 13 novels ^[1]. Lee Cheong-jun died from lung cancer at the age of 68 on July 31, 2008.^[2]

Life and Works

In 1965, he debuted with a short novel titled, Toewon (퇴원). Two years later, he won a Dongin Literature Award for Stupid and Fool (Byeongsingwa Meojeori, 병신과 머저리).

Many of his works have been adapted into movies or drama series by leading directors. Among them are:

• Iodo directed by Kim Ki-young (1977).
• Seopyeonje directed by Im Kwon-taek (1993), about a traditional pansori master who travels the country with his adopted son and daughter.
• Beyond the Years·천년학, directed again by Im Kwon-taek (2007), was based on The Wanderer of Seonghak-dong
• Secret Sunshine, directed by Lee Chang-dong (2007), was using the plot provided by the short story A Story of a Worm.

According to a critic, Kim Byeong-ik (김병익), Lee opened a new pace of Korean literature before the true modern literature of Korea was established in 1960s.^[3]

Many of his novels have been translated. See, for example, Korea Literature Translation Institute.

See also

• Korean literature
• Cinema of Korea
• Park Kyung-ni

References

External links

• Lee Cheong-Joon on PeopleForever.org