Current Biographies of Poets Nguyen Sa and Cung Tram Tuong

At 12:50 PM 4/7/00 -0700, Dan Duffy wrote:

Has anyone seen a current biography of either of the poets Nguyen Sa or Cung Tram Tuong?

Is there a reference work from the overseas community which lists them? Is any of our research libraries maintaining a morgue of clip files from the Vietnamese press, about literary figures? Can someone supply me with the phone number of a maven on this topic?

I cheerfully offered to assist a local citizen on this matter, without anticipating that my shelf of books doesn't go far beyond 1960 in Viet Nam.

From: hue-tam ho tai <hhtai@fas.harvard.edu>

To: "Vietnam Studies Group" <vsg@u.washington.edu>

Subject: Re: query: current biographies of poets Nguyen Sa and Cung Tram Tuong

The problem is not that your bookshelf does not go beyond 1960; it is that there has not been enough attention to writers from the south. Both Nguyen Sa and Cung Tram Tuong published quite a bit of potery in Saigon. Some of their poems are included in Nguyen Ngoc Bich A Thousand Years of Vietnamese Poetry, so you might try to contact Bich to find out if he can supply biographical data. Alas, I do not have Bich's address, but I hope someone else in VSG is in contact with him.

Hue-Tam Ho Tai

From: "Chung Nguyen" <chung.nguyen@umb.edu>

To: "Vietnam Studies Group" <vsg@u.washington.edu>

Subject: Re: query: current biographies of poets Nguyen Sa and Cung Tram Tuong

Dear Dan:

What you ask for - archived materials, VA library, clippings, etc - are not yet available. The most local communities can build at the moment are cultural centers, where the young and the old can go for English lessons or some traditional events. May be down the road ...

Nguyen Sa passed away on April 18, 1998. I am sure that there would be articles on his life and work on one or more of the well-known overseas journals - the likes of Van Hoc, Hop Luu, The Ky 21, Lang Van, etc - soon thereafter, if you have access to a few libraries where they are archived. Nguyen Vy Khanh actually wrote one, "Nguyen Sa, nha bao, nha tho" on May 2, 1998 - a fairly long and comprehensive piece. It was posted on soc.culture.vietnamese on Sept 4, 1999. You may be able to retrieve it via Dejanews. If you have trouble getting it, let me know.

Or you can refer to "Tac Gia Va Tac Pham: Nguyen Sa", Doi, Cal., 1991.

From: "Allen J. Riedy" <ajr2@cornell.edu>

To: "Vietnam Studies Group" <vsg@u.washington.edu>

Subject: Re: query: current biographies of poets Nguyen Sa and Cung

Tram Tuong

Mention was made in a previous message of a 1991 publication by Doi publishers entitled Nguyen Sa : tac gia va tac pham. An apparent second volume of this came out in 1998, though I can't verify that it is in fact vol. 2 of the 1991 work. The title page of the 1998 volume identifies it as vol. 2, but makes no reference to volume 1. The title reads Nguyen Sa, tac gia & tac pham, tap II and is published by Tu sach Tac gia & Tac pham,

1998. What leads me to think it might be vol 2. of the 1991 work is that we bought it from Doi, the publisher of the 1991 volume. The 1998 volume consists of a number of essays written in 1998, the year of Nguyen Sa's death; interviews with Nguyen Sa and other literati; and tho tuong niem.

The bibliographic record follows:

-------------------------------------------------------------------------

0371

TITLE: Nguyenn Sa, tac gia & tac pham / [thuc hien, Do Cuong ... et al.].

PUBLISHED: California : Tu sach tac gia & tac pham, 1998-

DESCRIPTION: v. : ill. ; 21 cm.

LOCATION: CALL NUMBER: STATUS:

Kroch Library Asia PL 4389 .T73 Z66 1998 Enter HOL 1 for holdings

From: Vinh Quoc Nguyen <vnguyen@fas.harvard.edu>

To: "Vietnam Studies Group" <vsg@u.washington.edu>

Subject: Re: query: current biographies of poets Nguyen Sa and Cung Tram Tuong

Dear Dan,

Unless my eyes deceived me, during my visit last month to Tu Luc bookstore in Santa Anna, I saw a rather hefty (first?) tome of Nguyen Sa's collected works (poetry and some criticism). That might be a useful reference point for Nguyen Sa. I have no idea how to track Cung Tram Tuong down, however. Huynh Sanh Thong's second anthology of Vietnamese poetry in translation has quite a large list of bare-boned biographical soundbites about the hundreds of authors included therein, surely Cung Tram Tuong must be in there somewhere.

Best,

Vinh Nguyen

(in Hanoi, and therefore as far removed from this matter as you can possibly imagine).

From: "Chung Nguyen" <chung.nguyen@umb.edu>

To: "Vietnam Studies Group" <vsg@u.washington.edu>

Subject: Re: query: current biographies of poets Nguyen Sa and Cung Tram Tuong

Dear Vinh:

I think so too, but when I check, unexpectedly HST didn't. That reminds me of a hefty 3-vol edition of something like "Hai Muoi Nam Van Hoc VN Hai Ngoai" put out by Khanh

Truong et al (it is currently stored in boxes so I can't tell you its exact name, or check its content). The biographical details are, however, rather minimal.

Nguyen Sa had published 2 volumes of poetry in exile, in 1988 and 1996. You can glimpse some details there. There is a fairly common opinion that these are not as powerful, or as well- received, as his first volume published in 1959, before he married his sweet heart. Boy misses girl, writes great poetry; boy gets girl, writes no-longer-great poetry. Perhaps there is a lesson here somewhere, for future poets !

Actually, you can check on Nguyen Sa's bio there, now that his works have been reprinted in Vietnam :) !

Nguyen Ba Chung

From: Chuong Chung <cchung@ccsf.cc.ca.us>

To: "Vietnam Studies Group" <vsg@u.washington.edu>

Subject: Re: query: current biographies of poets Nguyen Sa and Cung Tram

Tuong

Dear Dan.

This is Chuong (we ran into each other in Philly). A source for Nguyen Sa and Cung Tram Tuong might be found at UC Irvine, Southeast Asian archives. This is a wonderful collection. Anne Frank got quite a collection. I saw two pieces on Nguyen Sa (a eulogy and another piece on his life) Incidentally I studied under him back in the 60s prior to my leaving Vietnam.

Check UC irvine. I will try to search my files for these pieces

Chuong