VS Naipaul (1932-2018) was an Indian-Trinidadian British writer best known for his fictional and non-fictional British works such as The Mystic Masseur (1957), The Suffrage of Elvira (1958), Miguel Street (1959), and Mr. Biswas’s House (1961). He published more than thirty books during a career spanning more than fifty years. His first three books were caricatured portraits of Trinidadian society. In 2001, VS Naipaul won the Nobel Prize for Literature. In 1990, he received a knighthood in the United Kingdom.
Wiki/Biography
Sir Vidyadar Surajprasad Naipaul was born in Chaguanas, Trinidad, on Wednesday, 17 August 1932 (aged 85; at time of death). His zodiac sign is Leo. In 1938, his family moved to Port of Spain, where he attended Queen’s Royal College, a secondary school in Trinidad and Tobago. In 1948, VS Naipaul received a scholarship from the Trinidad government to study in the United Kingdom. In 1950, he left Trinidad to study English at Oxford University in England, where he wrote his first novel. In 1953, he studied for a BA (B. Litt.), a postgraduate degree in English literature, at Oxford University. In December 1953, he failed the B.Litt examination. He was unable to obtain his degree due to examinations. In 1954, VS Naipaul moved to London and took refuge in his cousin’s apartment. In 1954, VS Naipaul moved to London.In his book Dark Areas: The Discovery of India, he writes
India’s squalor, its explosion of human decay and carnage, gave birth to so many people of grace and beauty, ruled by meticulous etiquette. Producing too much life negates the value of life; yet it allows many people to achieve unique human development. Nowhere are people so noble, mellow and individualistic. Nowhere did they give themselves so fully and so confidently. To understand Indians is to enjoy them; every encounter is an adventure.I don’t want India to sink [out of my memory]; Just thinking about it is painful. “
1960s VS Naipaul
family
VS Naipaul’s grandfather immigrated to Trinidad from British India in 1880 as an indentured servant and worked on a sugar plantation. His maternal grandfather also immigrated to Trinidad as an indentured laborer in the 1890s. Slavery was abolished in Trinidad in 1833, but slave labor was still needed. Thus, the legal contract of indentured labor, known as indentured labor, was brought out.
Parents and siblings
VS Naipaul’s mother, Droapatie Capildeo, came from a family of Indo-Trinidadian Hindu experts. His father, Seepersad Naipaul, was a Trinidadian writer and journalist. Seepersad Naipaul died in October 1953. VS Naipaul is the eldest son of his parents. His father used to call him “Vito.” He has a younger brother named Shiva who is a novelist and journalist.
VS Naipaul’s father, Sipersad Naipaul
VS Naipaul and his brother Shiva Naipaul
wife and children
In 1952, VS Naipaul met Patricia Ann Hale, a history student at Oxford University, and graduated together in 1953. In 1955, VS Naipaul married Patricia Ann Hale. In 1995, during a trip to Indonesia with Margaret Murray Gooding, Naipaul met Nadira Alvi, a Pakistani journalist for the Pakistani newspaper The Nation. Two months after Patricia’s death, VS Naipaul ended his relationship with Margaret Murray Gooding and married Nadira Alvi. The age gap between the two is more than 20 years. Nadira Alvi gave birth to two daughters from her first marriage to Agha Hashim, a man 26 years older than her: Gul Zehra Zehra and Sumar Zahra. After the divorce, Nadira married Iqbal Shah and they had a daughter named Maleha and a son Nadir Shah. Later, VS Naipaul adopted Maleeha and Nadir Shah.
VS Naipaul and his first wife Patricia Hale
VS Naipaul and his second wife Nadira Naipaul
VS Naipaul with his second wife Nadira Naipaul and their son Nadir Naipaul
Relationships/Affairs
In 1972, VS Naipaul had an affair with the British-Argentine woman Margaret Murray Gooding, whom he met during a trip to Argentina. She is married and has three children. He continued for the next 24 years.
VS Naipaul and his lover Margaret Murray Gooding
Signature/Autograph
VS Naipaul Signature
Profession
In 1954, VS Naipaul moved to London and took refuge in his cousin’s apartment. Lack of money and unemployment, VS Naipaul relied entirely on his first wife, Patricia Ann Hale. In December 1954, Henry Swanzy, producer of the BBC weekly program Caribbean Voices, offered VS Naipaul a job as presenter of the weekly programme. At the BBC, he conducted numerous interviews, presented weekly programs, and wrote essays and reviews. He worked at the BBC and Caribbean Voices until 1958. In January 1955, he moved with Patricia Ann Hale to a flat in Kilburn, London. In 1955, VS Naipaul wrote a 3,000-word story based on his childhood memories of his neighbors on Port of Spain Street. His story deeply influenced three of his fellow writers, John Stockbridge, Andrew Salkey and Gordon Woolford, who later encouraged him to write more. For the entire next month, he focused on writing a collection of comic strips related to the streets of Port of Spain, which later became his first 176-page book titled Miguel Street. The book was published in 1959. He wrote in the book:
Listen, kids, have you ever thought that this world isn’t real at all? Have you ever thought that we have the only minds in the world and you just come up with everything else? It’s like I’m here, with the only mind in the world, thinking about you people here, about the war and all the houses and ships and them in the harbor. Have you ever thought about this?
Publishing company editor Diana Asier and publisher Andre Deutsch liked his book “Miguel Street” and his writing style. But the book is unlikely to make any profits in the UK. So Diana Athill and André Deutsch asked him to write a novel for £125. In the autumn of 1955, VS Naipaul completed another of his novels, The Mysterious Masseur, which was accepted by Deutsch on December 8, 1955. In 1957, Naipaul found full-time employment with the Cement and Concrete Association (C&CA), which published the magazine Concrete Quarterly, as an editorial assistant. He didn’t like the office job and quit after ten weeks. But his £1,000 salary gave him financial stability, allowing him to send some money to his family in Trinidad. That same year, the British writer and literary editor Francis Wyndham introduced him to the novelist Anthony Powell, who helped VS Naipaul find a monthly job in the New Statesman magazine Part time job reviewing books. Resigned in 1961. In 1961, Naipaul visited British Guiana, Suriname, Martinique and Jamaica at the invitation of Dr. Eric Williams, Prime Minister of Trinidad and Tobago, Commonwealth of the West Indies, and wrote a book on the Caribbean book of. VS Naipaul wrote a book called The Middle Passage: Impressions of Five Societies – Britain, France and the Netherlands in the West Indies and South America (1962), which was Naipaul’s first travel book Writing works. In 1962, VS Naipaul visited India for a year with Patricia Ann Hale. In 1963, VS Naipaul began writing the monthly “Letter from London” for the “Illustrated Weekly of India” for two years.
novel
- The Mysterious Masseur(1957)
- Elvira’s Suffrage (1958)
- Miguel Street(1959)
- Mr. Biswas’s House (1961)
- Mr. Stone and the Knights (1963)
- Flag of the Island (1967)
- Free State(1971)
- Bend in the River(1979)
- Arrival Mystery (1987)
- A Road in the World(1994)
- Half a Life(2001)
non-fiction
- The Middle Passage: Impressions of Five Societies of the West Indies and South America—British, French, and Dutch (1962)
- Dark Place(1964)
- Lost El Dorado (1969)
- Crowded Barracks and Other Articles (1972)
- India: A Wounded Civilization (1977)
- The Return of Eva Peron and the Killings of Trinidad (1980)
- Among Believers: A Journey into Islam (1981)
- Searching for the Center: Two Narratives (1984)
- Turn of the South(1989)
- India: Mutiny of a Million (1990)
- Unbelievable: Traveling to Islam among Converts (1998)
- Between Father and Son: Letters from Home (1999)
- Writers and the World: Essays (2002)
- The Writer’s Person: Ways of Seeing and Feeling (2007)
- African Masks: A Glimpse of African Faith (2010)
dispute
VS Naipaul accused of misogyny
VS Naipaul was accused of physically abusing his wife. Margaret Murray wrote in a letter to the New York Review of Books,
Vidya (VS Naipaul) says I don’t mind this abuse. Of course I mind. ”
VS Naipaul claims there are no female writers in competition
In 2011, VS Naipaul claimed in an interview that he did not think any female writer could match his literature. He called Jane Austen’s work “sentimental.” He said,
Women’s worldview is very narrow, because for a woman, she is inevitably not the complete master of a family, so this is also reflected in her writing. I read an article and within a paragraph or two I know if it was written by a woman.I think [it is] Not equal to me. My publisher, she’s a great taster and editor, and when she became a writer, lo and behold, it was all feminine gibberish. I didn’t mean any unkindness. ”
VS Naipaul looks down on Trinidadians
He said in an interview,
I don’t see monkeys – you can use a capital M, which is a blanket endearment – reading my work… These people live purely materialistic lives, which I find despicable… which makes They are only interested in those who want it in college. A compassionate study of the beast. In another article, he described Trinidad as unimportant, uncreative, cynical and a dot on a map. ”
Awards, Honors, Achievements
- VS Naipaul won the 2001 Nobel Prize for Literature for his novel Half a Life (2001).
VS Naipaul wins Nobel Prize from King Carl XIV
VS Naipaul wins Nobel Prize
- In 1958 he won the John Llewellyn Rhys Award for his book The Mysterious Masseur.
- VS Naipaul won the Somerset Maugham Award in 1961 for his book Miguel Street.
- In 1990, he was awarded Trinidad and Tobago’s highest national award, the Trinity Cross, for distinguished services to Trinidad and Tobago.
- In 1993, VS Naipaul won the David Cohen Prize for English Literature awarded by Arts Council England.
- In 1983 he received the Jerusalem Prize, a biennial literary prize, for his works dealing with the theme of human freedom in society.
- In 1971, VS Naipaul won the Booker Prize for his book “The Free State” (1971).
die
VS Naipaul died at his home in London on Saturday 11 August 2018. His burial was held at Kensal Green Cemetery.
Facts/Trivia
- The book, A House for Mr Biswas (1961), recounts childhood memories of his father. In 1983, he wrote
The book took three years to write. It felt like a vocation; there was a brief period toward the end of writing when I actually believed I had memorized all or most of the book. The labor is over; the books begin to recede. I found that I was unwilling to re-enter the world I had created and to expose myself to the emotions that underlie comedy again. I was nervous about this book. I have not read it since it passed the proofs in May 1961. “
- In 2011, on the 50th anniversary of the publication of his book A House for Mr Biswas (1961), VS Naipaul dedicated the book to his late wife Patri Patricia Anne Hale.
- In 1967, VS Naipaul served as writer-in-residence at Makerere University in Kampala, Uganda.
- In late 1964, VS Naipaul was asked to write an original screenplay for an American film. He eventually wrote a novella called “The Flag of the Island.” But the director didn’t like the storyline, so the movie was never made.
Categories: Biography
Source: HIS Education