Charles Corm

Writer

Although most Lebanese authors at the time wrote in Arabic, Corm mostly wrote in French. One of his main intellectual contributions is La Revue Phénicienne, a publication he founded in July 1919 in which many writers such as Khalil Gibran, Michel Chiha and Said Akl took part and which inspired Lebanon's independence. Rushdy Maalouf, the father of Académie Française member and Francophone novelist Amin Maalouf wrote: "Charles was the first one to show us how to love Lebanon, how to chant and rhapsodize Lebanon, how to vaunt and defend Lebanon, and how to become master-builders of this Lebanon."

Corm is considered one of the most influential and awarded modern Middle Eastern writers due to his advocacy of Lebanese identity and nationalism. Among his close friends were Spanish painter Pablo Picasso, French artist Marc Chagall, German-American architect Ludwig Mies van der Rohe, French poet Paul Valery and American novelist F. Scott Fitzgerald.

His La Montagne Inspirée ("The Sacred Mountain" in English), earned him the Edgar Allan Poe International Prize of Poetry in 1934. Additionally, Corm, whose father Daoud Corm was a teacher and mentor to the young Khalil Gibran, was the French translator of Gibran's English masterpiece The Prophet. A three-time recipient of the French Republic's highest civilian honor, the Grand Croix de la Légion d'Honneur, Charles Corm is said to have, three times, rejected that award, noting that "too many enemies of France and too many traitors to Lebanon had been recipients of this decoration in the past."

Industrialist

Upon graduation, at the age of 18, Corm travelled to New York City where he rented a small office on Wall Street to conduct an import/export business. His partner in this endeavor noted: “Everything in the young Charles was beauty and charm. His hair was black, his eyes were wide, his look was sharp. He was slim, dashing and elegant. Women would gaze at him while he walked down the street. Once he started speaking, there was no escaping the charisma.”

Soon after, Charles Corm obtained a meeting with business tycoon Henry Ford, the richest man in the world at the time. Subsequent to the meeting, Corm secured the Ford Motor Company dealership, as well as several leading American brands for the entire Greater Middle East region, at a time when Ford Motor Company was the only car maker in the world. At its height, Corm's business empire, all folded into Charles Corm and Co., was the first and largest multinational in the Middle East, employing thousands of men and women from Turkey to Iran. His enterprises became the livelihood of thousands of families and contributed to developing the infrastructure and networks of roads, railways and bridges in countries that had not yet even come into being.

In 1928 he designed Ford Motor Company's Middle East Headquarters, later to be named The Corm Building and Gardens, with no formal architectural training. The building was erected in 1929 in Beirut, later becoming the Corm family home. It was the Middle East's first skyscraper and highest standing structure in Lebanon until 1967. It is reported that, running under the building, is a huge complex of storage areas containing over 250,000 books (the largest private library in the Middle East) as well a reinforced “bunker” containing an immense collection of artistic, cultural and religious artifacts amassed by Corm during his entire life and often referred to as "the Corm family's hidden treasure". Reflecting Charles Corm's ecologist instincts, long before that term had come to carry its modern social and ideological "activist" connotations, the building’s 14,000 m2 gardens (the largest private gardens in Beirut) contain a variety of artistic and archaeological relics, exotic trees, and rare plants. The gardens are likewise home to ten imposing 6,000-year old engraved columns arranged in a circle, coined by some "the Stonehenge of the Middle East".

His wealth made, the man who had been referred to as "the reluctant tycoon" decided to devote his life to literature and philanthropy on the occasion of his 40th birthday.

Philanthropist

Corm helped finance several Lebanese state buildings and entities including the Lebanese Parliament, the National Museum, the National Library and other state and cultural landmarks at a time when the nascent Lebanese state lacked funds, freshly independent from its French mandate status. He also personally financed the Lebanese pavilion at the 1939 World Fair in New York City, for which Mayor LaGuardia made him Citizen of Honor of New York City, the highest distinction given out by the city.

Corm's close friend Said Akl noted: "Charles not only was the guiding force behind Lebanon’s independence, helped lay Lebanon’s constitutional foundations but also spent his own money building the political, social and cultural landmarks needed to support our vision of Lebanon. During those years, it seemed very clear to me that despite his colossal wealth, Corm did not care much about money. Rather, a deep sense of commitment to what he loved, later in his life brilliantly displayed throughout his literary and artistic endeavors, had seemingly rewarded him with what was undoubtedly the greatest fortune in the region at the time."

Personal life

Corm was born in 1894 in Beirut, Lebanon, the son of the famous Lebanese painter Daoud Corm (sometimes Anglicised as "David Corm"). He graduated from the Oriental Faculty at Saint Joseph University with high honors. In 1934, at age 40, he left business for a life of literature and philanthropy. Due to his exceptional success in business and later on acclaimed literary endeavors, Corm enjoyed a contact network ranging from the global business elite to the most famous international artists. According to Rushdy Maalouf, “Charles had the amazing faculty to befriend and seduce business tycoons, royals, famous artists, established scientists and Hollywood stars with the same ease. At times, it seemed there was nobody he did not know. This granted him tremendous clout in business, literature and politics not only in the region but worldwide. Whether through business or art, Charles spent his life building powerful bridges between Lebanon, often referred to at the time as the Paris of the Middle East, and the West.”

Back in Beirut’s golden years, Rushdy Maalouf also noted that it was not unusual for artists, intellectuals and business, political and cultural figures visiting Lebanon for the first time to have Charles Corm and his home, which hosted grandiose parties practically every week, on their itinerary of people and places to see: “they visited Lebanon seeking Charles Corm the same way some of us may visit France to see Da Vinci’s Mona Lisa or the way we may visit Athens to see the Acropolis. This is the veneration that many, Lebanese and foreigners alike, held for Charles Corm and is so present in his mystique.”

An uncommitted bachelor for most of his life, Charles Corm finally married Samia Baroody in 1935. Samia Baroody had been Miss Lebanon and took second place in the 1934 Miss Universe pageant in New York City. Charles Corm and his wife Samia went on to have four children: David, Hiram, Virginie and Madeleine.

In addition to his prolific literary legacy that can now be found in most libraries and universities around the world, Charles Corm left one of the most substantial fortunes in the region, now globally diversified and managed by his descendants.

Works

Honors and awards (partial list)