Yŏm Sangsŏp 염상섭 / 廉想涉

Yŏm Sangsŏp was born in 1897 in Seoul but received his education in Japan at Posung High School. He enrolled in Keio University in 1915 after his high school graduation but dropped out after one semester. In 1919, he was arrested for helping to plan the March 1 st Movement and a rally in Osaka. He returned to Korea in 1920 to become a reporter with the Dong-A Ilbo. He published his first story “A Frog in the Specimen Room” (표본실의 청개구리) in 1921.

A supporter of the Korean Independence movement, he is known as one of the few writers of the colonial period who wrote in Korean rather than Japanese. He is also known for his time in Manchuria, where he lived between 1936 and 1946 and served as editor-in-chief of the Manseon Ilbo. He supported the sovereignty of Korean settlers in Manchuria and was supportive of Koreans’ return to Korea from Manchuria after the end of Japanese colonial occupation, with many of his stories featuring the lives of settlers who returned to Korea from Manchuria after the colonial period.

He is best known for his work “Three Generations” (삼대(三代)), published as a serial in the Choson Ilbo in 1931 and tells the story of a family in Japan-occupied Seoul . He is a recipient of the Seoul Culture Award (1953), Asia Freedom Literature Award (1956), the National Academy of Arts’ Contribution Award (1957), and the March 1 st Culture Award and Korean President’s Medal (1962).

He passed away in 1963 and the age of sixty-seven.

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