Introduction
Nguyen Tuan was born in 1910 on Hang Bac Street, Hanoi, with family roots in Nhan Chinh, Thanh Xuan, Hanoi. He is regarded as one of the greatest writers of modern Vietnamese literature and an influential journalist. He passed away in 1987 in Hanoi. He was a founding member of the Vietnam Writers' Association in 1957 and was posthumously awarded the Ho Chi Minh Prize for Literature and Arts (first round) in 1996.
Career in Literature and Journalism
Before the August Revolution of 1945, Nguyen Tuan contributed many articles, essays, and miscellaneous pieces to prominent newspapers such as Ngay Nay, Thanh Nghi, Tieu thuyet thu bay, Ich Huu, and Ha Noi bao. Unlike his realist contemporaries, he wrote with an aesthetic, virtuosic tone and a distinctive personal voice. His reportage Mot chuyen di (Ngay Nay, 1939), recounting a journey upstream on the Da River, is considered a precursor to his famous essay Nguoi lai do song Da (The Ferryman on the Da River). Chen tra trong suong som (Thanh Nghi, 1940) is an essay-like article praising the cultural beauty of tea drinking.
Major Works
Nguyen Tuan's works are rich in intellect and linguistic beauty. Before the August Revolution, he wrote works such as Chu nguoi tu tu (The Prisoner's Calligraphy) and Thieu que huong. Notable essay collections include Mot chuyen di (1938), Thieu que huong (1940), Chiec lu dong mat cua (1941), Tan den dau lac (1941), Toc chi Hoai (1943), Duong vui (1949), Song Da (1960), Ha Noi ta danh My gioi (1972), and Canh sac va huong vi dat nuoc (1988). His reportage includes Tinh chien dich (1950), Di tham Trung Hoa (1955), Co To (1965), and Ky (1976). He also wrote the novels Chua Dan (1946) and Thang can (1953), the short story collections Vang bong mot thoi (1940) and Nguyen (1945), children's stories, and the essay collection Yeu ngon (2000). A two-volume collection of his selected works was published in 1981 and 1982.
Style
Nguyen Tuan pioneered the journalistic reportage genre, writing with subjective, narrative, and literary qualities. He is credited with elevating Vietnamese journalistic language to an art form, with polished, rhythmic prose. After the Revolution, he wrote battlefield reportage while maintaining his aesthetic style. He also wrote essays and critiques on Tu Xuong, Chekhov, Dostoevsky, Nguyen Du, Leo Tolstoy, Tan Da, and Vu Trong Phung. The Russian poet E. Yevtushenko called him a "classical Vietnamese writer."