Ko Un

Sonjae An (Sogang University)

The Literary Encyclopedia. Volume 10.2.3: Korean Writing and Culture.
Vol. editors: Kerry Myler (Birmingham Newman University)

Dates

Born 1 Aug 1933
Activity 1958-ongoing

Places

Born in South Korea
Active in South Korea

Activities

Primary

Poet

Resources

Ko's Works

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Ko Un is surely Korea’s most prolific writer and he himself cannot say for sure how many books he has published in all. He guesses that it must be about 150, volumes of many different kinds of poetry, epic, narrative, and lyric, as well as novels, plays, essays, and translations from classical Chinese. This means that it is impossible to write in detail about his work. Fairly complete lists of his main publications as well as much other information can be found on his home page at http://www.koun.co.kr/

He was born August 1, 1933, and grew up in Gunsan, a town on the west coast of North Jeolla Province. Echoes of his childhood experiences in the Korea of the 1930s and 1940s can be found in the earlier volumes of the great 30-volume series known as Maninbo, the final volumes of which were

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2030 words

Citation: An, Sonjae. "Ko Un". The Literary Encyclopedia. First published 20 October 2010 [https://www.litencyc.com/php/speople.php?rec=true&UID=12863, accessed 04 December 2024.]