Mohammed Dib, 82; Writer from Algeria Taught a Year at UCLA
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Mohammed Dib, 82, Algerian and French novelist and poet who wrote a book based on his teaching stint at UCLA, died Friday at his home in La Celle-Saint-Cloud near Paris, of unspecified causes.
The author of nearly 20 books, Dib spent the year 1976-77 teaching at UCLA. He subsequently wrote the book “L.A. Trip.”
Born and reared in Algeria, Dib grew up speaking Arabic but wrote in French. He was a teacher, an accountant, a journalist and a well-established author in Algeria before French colonial police expelled him in 1959 for working toward national independence. Several French writers, including Andre Malraux and Albert Camus, pressed authorities to allow Dib to live in France, and he was based there for the rest of his life.
One of his best-known novels was “La Grande Maison”, the story of a large family in rural 1930s Algeria published in 1952.
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