On Thurs., July 22, Dr. Lou Ann Matossian will give a lecture entitled “From Massachusetts to Minnesota: Pioneering Armenian American Writer Bedros Keljik,” beginning at 8 p.m. at the National Association for Armenian Studies and Research (NAASR) Center, 395 Concord Ave., Belmont, Mass.
Author, activist, and entrepreneur Bedros Arakel Keljik (1874-1959), a student of Armenian realist Tlgadintzi, belongs to the founding generation of Armenian American writers, yet his trenchant “sketches” of early immigrant life have only recently been rescued from obscurity. After emigrating to the U.S. in 1890, the Kharpert native worked in the factories of Worcester and Fitchburg, Mass., then moved to Boston, where he became known as a fiery orator for the Hnchag Party. Active in Armenian literary circles, he collaborated with Alice Stone Blackwell on the groundbreaking anthology Armenian Poems (1896), then headed to Chicago where he sold Oriental rugs in a department store, stumped for the Democratic Party, and somehow found the time to earn a law degree. In November 1899, he arrived in St. Paul, the first Armenian to settle permanently in Minnesota, and started a family Oriental rug business now in its third generation. His brother Krikor was also a writer of note who published under the pen name “Devrish.”
Keljik’s collected short stories were published in 1944 as Armenian-American Sketches (Amerigahay Badgerner). “Chicago Characters,” the first of these to appear in English, was translated by Lou Ann Matossian for the Ararat Quarterly in 1997. Today that same journal—itself recently re-launched in electronic form—has begun publishing the entire volume, as translated by editor Aris Sevag. Having figured in two Armenian American histories—Robert Mirak’s Torn Between Two Lands and Peter Balakian’s The Burning Tigris—the life and work of Bedros Keljik await rediscovery.
Lou Ann Matossian, Ph.D., a board member and past president of the Armenian Cultural Organization of Minnesota, first became interested in Bedros Keljik while organizing the community’s centennial celebration in 1999. The history of Armenian settlement in Minnesota led her to the Christie missionary archive, a topic she presented last year at NAASR and in Istanbul. Matossian also serves as program director of the Cafesjian Family Foundation in Minneapolis.
For more information, call (617) 489-1610, email hq@naasr.org, or write to NAASR, 395 Concord Ave., Belmont, MA 02478.
Be the first to comment