Career
He showed an interest in literature in his early life and started to write verses at the age of 13. Salah graduate from Cairo University in 1951 with a degree in Arabic literature. Soon after graduation from the university, he took up teaching Arabic at state high school, a job he did not enjoy doing.
He eventually abandoned it and began working for Rose al-Yūsuf Magazine as journalist then became the literary editor for al-Ahram.
Afterwards, he held the position of undersecretary of the Ministry of Culture. From there, he became the editor-in-chief for the Cinema and Theater magazine.
Between 1977 and 1978, he served as a press counselor for the Egyptian embassy in India and then headed the General Egyptian Book Organization until his death. His first collection of poems, al-Nas fi Baladi (The People In My Country) published in 1956, marked the beginnings of the free verse movement in Egyptian poetry.
