Yi Chong-jun (This is the preferred Romanization per LTI Korea) was a prominent South Korean novelist. Throughout his four decade-long career, Lee wrote more than 100 short stories, 13 novels. He died from lung cancer at the age of 68 on July 31, 2008. Born in 1939, Yi Chong-jun graduated with a degree in German literature from Seoul National University. In 1965, he debuted with a short story titled Toewon (퇴원, lit. "Leaving the Hospital"). Two years later, he won a Dongin Literature Award for Stupid and Fool (Byeongsingwa Meojeori, 병신과 머저리). Yi is one of the foremost writers of the 4.19 Generation and his literary output since has been both steady in pace and considerable in volume, and his subject matter has been varied. “An Imbecile and an Idiot” (Byeongsin gwa mejeori, 1966) probes the spiritual malaise of the post-war Korean youth; This Paradise of Yours (Dangsindeurui cheonguk, 1976) explores the dialectics of charity and will to power, with the leper colony of Sorokdo Island as the backdrop; and The Fire Worshipers (Bihwa milgyo, 1985) meditates on the meaning of human rituals conducted in a Godless society when no ultimate guarantee of the absolute can be given. Lee Cheong-jun’s fiction encompasses a broad range of political, existential and metaphysical concerns.
