Henri Kréa

Henri Kréa (born November 6, 1933, Algiers [Algeria]—died December 6, 2000, Paris, France) was an Algerian-born poet, dramatist, and novelist whose works deal with alienation and identity, nature, heroism, and moral and social change in Algeria.

Like the hero of his first and only novel, Djamal (1961), Kréa had a French father and an Algerian mother. He attended secondary school in Blida and later in Paris at the Lycée Henri IV. In 1956 he became a journalist and settled permanently in Paris.

Kréa published more than 20 collections of poetry, including Liberté première (1957; “First Freedom”), which deals with the Algerian war of independence; La Révolution et la poésie sont une seule et même chose (1957; “Revolution and Poetry Are One and the Same”); and La Conjuration des égaux (1964; “The Plot of the Peers”). His plays included Le Séisme (1958; “Earthquake”) and Théâtre algérien (1962). Tombeau de Jugurtha (1968; “Fall of Jugurtha”) is a historical biography.

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