Yun Dong-Ju: A Critical Biography

By WooHye Song

Book Overview

Historian and novelist Song WooHye chronicles the life of Yun Dong-ju (1917-1945), one of the most beloved and important poets in the modern Korean literary canon, widely considered Korea's "National Poet". Beginning with the history of the North Gando region (now Yanbian, China), where Yun was born, and ending with facts behind the publication of his only and posthumous poetry collection, Sky, Wind, Star, and Poem, this critical biography elucidates who Yun Dong-ju really was, with factual descriptions of the bleak and turbulent period of Japan's colonization of Korea.

While first working on the book in the 1980s, Song had interviewed the poet's surviving relatives and friends, most of whom have since passed away. Without her interviews, these important first-hand accounts would have been lost. Song had an added advantage of an "insider," as she is a niece of Song Mong-gyu, who was the poet's first cousin and inseparable friend for life. Incorporating newly discovered materials and using interviews with the beloved poet's family and friends, this biography is the most comprehensive, definitive biography of Yun Dong-ju to date, now available in English for the first time.

This book is published with the support of the Literature Translation Institute of Korea (LTI Korea).

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 197884168X
• ISBN13: 9781978841680
• Release Date: October 2025
• Publisher: Rutgers University Press
• Length: 346 Pages
• Weight: 1.18 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.8" x 6.3" x 9.2"
• Age Range: 16 years and up
• Grade Range: Grade 11 and higher