In Society — Literary Activity in Beirut

At the Thursday of the magazine 'Shi'r' — The thunder and the rains that came one upon another in abundance through most of last January were not enough to keep the habitués of the 'Shi'r' magazine Thursday from attending regularly, every week, at the Alumni Club of the American University — at their head the founder and patron of the project, Mr. Youssef al-Khal, and his first lieutenant, 'Adonis.'

One of the evenings in late last December was set aside for the memory of the two departed poets, Elias Abu Shabaka and Fouad Suleiman, and the poet Fouad al-Hashen spoke on the occasion.

The Fouad Suleiman Library: During the gathering the idea was raised of founding a library in the poet's village — Fiaa — as part of the splendid cultural mission which our dear departed carried out; and a committee was appointed, made up of the poet Fouad al-Hashen (chairman), Dr. Jamil Jabr, and Mrs. Edvick Shayboub, to look after this project and to organize subscription drives for it, drawing on the army of admirers of Fouad Suleiman and his poetic and prose inspirations.

We shall bring our readers, installment by installment, news of the activity of the 'Fouad Suleiman Library.'

... And the Thurayya Circle is another manifestation of the literary renaissance in Lebanon; our ambassadress within it is our friend Nur Salman, together with her young colleagues: Georges Ghanem, Edmond Rizk, Joseph Abou Jaoudeh, Michel Nehme, and Shawki Abou Shakra — all of them models of the new, creative literature.

Nur Salman's 'Aqawil' — It was a charming evening that the Thurayya Circle presented on the evening of the fourth of last January, in which the rising woman of letters gave a shining sample of her fresh, newly-minted literature; and in another place in this issue are two sweet pieces from it.

Among the publications of the 'Thurayya' Circle there recently appeared the collection 'Nida' al-Ba'id' by the poet Georges Ghanem...