Marie Cavadia (1901–1970) was a Romanian writer of Greek ethnicity, who wrote in French, and lived and worked in France and Egypt. She is recognized as one of the main proponents of the Surrealist movement in Egypt, together with Georges Henein.^[1]

Life

Marie Cavadia was born in Romania in 1901, and studied in France, where she published her first works in French, two collections of poetry entitled Parthénies (1918) and Pluriel (1919). In Paris she met her first husband, French cinematographer and avant-garde theorist Marcel l'Herbier.^[2] In 1929, she moved to Egypt, where she married Mamdouh Riyaz Bey, a grandson of Riaz Pasha, and high-ranking government official.^[1]

Cavadia entertained a literary salon in Cairo, and was an active promoter of Surrealism. Among other writing, she published a collection of surrealist short stories in 1944, under the title Peau D'ange. She contributed regularly to the French-language periodical Revue du Caire, until 1945.

Later in life, she withdrew from the literary scene, and developed a strong interest in esotericism. In a private letter to Francis Dumont, Georges Henein notes:

"J’ajoute que Marie Riaz ne se passionne plus que pour des activités ésotériques et que tout ce qui la distrait de son rôle de grande-prêtresse ne trouve plus accueil auprès d’elle… " ("I would like to add that Marie Riaz is no longer interested in anything but her esoteric activities, and that she no longer welcomes anything that might distract her from her role as high priestess")^[3]

With Cavadia's withdrawal from literary life, her trace is lost. Scholarly sources give the date of her death as 1970, but the place of her death remains unknown.

Works

References