Jalal Al-e Ahmad (1923-1969) is an author whose writings during a 25-year career would warrant attention in any consideration of literature and society in Iran. That he has assumed special significance in the post-Pahlavi era can be explained by his efforts in the 1960s, in Nikki Keddie's words, “to achieve a kind of return from secularism to what he understood to be the true, progressive Islam…Al-e Ahmad found cultural roots and ties to the Iranian people in Islam [and] defended Islam against the policy of Westernization at any price championed by the [Pahlavi] regime.” The lip service paid Al-e Ahmad in recent years by Iranian writers and other intellectuals, including the publication of a 30-page eulogistic tribute to him in the first issue of the Association of Writers of Iran's Nameh-ye Kanun-e Nevisandegan-e Iran (1979), is an indication of their awareness of his distinctive potential appeal in an Islamic republic.