Today is Armenian playwright Levon Shant`s 143th birth anniversary.

Today marks the 143th birth anniversary of prominent Armenian playwright, novelist, poet and public figure Levon Shant.

Born in 1869 to a family of vendors, Shant lost his parents at an early age. After receiving his primary education in a Constantinople Armenian seminary, he went to Echmiadzin and later pursued his studies in Leipzig, Jena and Munich, specializing mainly in psychology and pedagogy. In 1899, he returned to the Transcaucasus where he was engaged in a teaching activity for over 10 years.

Shant was a member of Tbilisi’s Vernatun club and maintained close contacts with his contemporaries (Hovhannes Tumanyan, Ghazaros Aghayan, Avetik Isahakyan and Derenik Demirchyan). He returned to Constantinople in 1911 to continue teaching. In 1915, he settled in Europe, and four years later, again returned to the Transcacuasus.

Shant was a vice president of Armenia’s parliament during the First Republic.

His creative life lasted six decades. In the 1890s, he published his poems, and series of short storeys. But Shant’s most prominent pieces that left an important trace in the Armenian literature and culture are associated with his dramaturgy that include such works as The I” Man (1901), For Someone (1903), On the Road (1904), Ancient gods (1908), The Emperor (1916) etc.

Shant also translated works by the world-renowned writers, Ethel Lilian Voynich (Gadfly) and Henrik Ibsen (An Enemy of the People).

He died on November 29, 1951 in Beirut.