Shahan Shahnour (August 3, 1903, Istanbul – August 20, 1974, Saint-Raphaël), Armenian: Շահան Շահնուր, French transliteration Chahan Chahnour), who signed his French language writings as Armen Lubin (Արմէն Լիւպէն) was a French-Armenian writer and poet. He is considered a renowned Diasporan author in the Western Armenian tradition with his own style of writing.
Biography
Shahan Shahnour was born Shahnour Kerestejian in a suburb of Constantinople (Istanbul), Ottoman Empire. He graduated from Berberian High School in 1921 and started contributing to "Vosdan" paper, mostly with translations.
In 1923, he moved to Paris, where he worked as a photographer, and in 1929 published his first novel, Retreat Without Song, after a serialized publication in the Harach newspaper of Paris (it is translated into several languages). In 1933 he published his second book, also written in Armenian, The Betrayal of the Gods, a collection of short stories.
In 1937, he fell victim to the bone disease osteolysis, which disabled him and caused him much pain and suffering for the rest of his life, mostly spent in hospitals after he lost his home in 1939.
In 1945, having partially recovered from his illness, he started writing in French under the name Armen Lubin, and from then on he was acclaimed as a French poet and received several literary awards. He published in French several collections of poetry: The Furtive Passer-by, Sacred Patience, The Nightly Transport, The High Cage, and Fire With Fire.
In 1962, a collection of his Armenian works was printed in Yerevan in Soviet Armenia by the Armenian State Press. Several collections of his Armenian essays were published from 1958 to 1973, including Two Red Notebooks (1967) and The Open Register (1971).
Shahnour died on August 20, 1974, in the hospital of Saint-Raphaël, in southern France. He is buried in Père Lachaise Cemetery.
