Kim Tong-in

Born October 1900, in Pyongyang; died January 1951, in Seoul. Korean writer.

Kim Tong-in studied in Tokyo, where he began to publish the aesthetic journal Ch’angjo in 1918. His first short story, “A Weak Man’s Grief,” appeared in the journal. A brilliant stylist and an expert on the vernacular, Kim Tong-in played an important role in the development of the modern short-story genre. Among his most significant works are the naturalistic short stories “A Farewell Melody” (1921) and “Stormy Sonata” (1930), the cycle of short stories Notes of a Man Who Has Lost HisHomeland (1946), and the novels (for the most part historical) Woman (1930–32) and Ulchi Mundock (1946). During the 1920’s and 1930’s, Kim Tong-in actively opposed the Korean Federation of Proletarian Art.