Albert Cohen

Albert Cohen (born Aug. 16, 1895, Corfu, Greece—died Oct. 17, 1981, Geneva, Switz.) was a Greek-born French-Jewish novelist, journalist, and diplomat who secured his reputation with a trilogy written over the course of 38 years.

From 1900 Cohen was reared in Marseilles, France. He studied law in Geneva, became a Swiss citizen, and began a career as a writer and as a civil servant, notably with the International Labour Organisation of the United Nations. In 1921 he published Paroles juives, an examination of Judaism, Jewry, and Israel.

The title character of Solal (1930), Cohen’s first novel, struggles to synthesize his Jewish upbringing with his role as a French-based international diplomat. His story continues in Mangeclous (1938) and Belle du seigneur (1968) as Solal seeks to offset this inner turmoil by redirecting his idealism to his beloved Ariane. Characterized by a leisurely style, the trilogy is an epic study of a tragic hero. Among Cohen’s other works are the one-act play Ezéchiel (1927) and the memoirs Livre de ma mère (1954; Book of My Mother), O vous, frères humains (1972), and Carnets (1978). Much of his work appeared in the posthumous anthology Oeuvres (1994).