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Patricia Ann Hale, whom Naipaul married in 1955, served until her death 41 years later as first reader, editor, and critic of his writings. To her, in 2011, Naipaul dedicated his breakthrough novel, ], of a half-century before. Patricia Ann Hale, whom Naipaul married in 1955, served until her death 41 years later as first reader, editor, and critic of his writings. To her, in 2011, Naipaul dedicated his breakthrough novel, ], of a half-century before.
==Early life== ==Early life==
V. S. Naipaul, familiarly Vidia, was born on 17 August 1932 in the small town of ], Trinidad and Tobago. He was the second child and first son born to mother Dropatie Devi and father ]. A half-century earlier, his paternal grandfather had emigrated from India—from a village in the ] in the lower ]—to work as an ] in the sugar plantations near Chaguanas. During that same time, their prospects ravaged by the ], many Indians had emigrated to other outposts of the British Empire, such as ], ], and ], where, although slavery had been abolished, slave labor was still in demand. V. S. Naipaul, familiarly Vidia, was born on 17 August 1932 in the small town of ], Trinidad and Tobago. He was the second child and first son born to mother Dropatie and father ]. A half-century earlier, his paternal grandfather had emigrated from India—from a village in the ] in the lower ]—to work as an ] in the sugar plantations near Chaguanas. During that same time, their prospects ravaged by the ], many Indians had emigrated to other outposts of the British Empire, such as ], ], and ], where, although slavery had been abolished, slave labor was still in demand.

His father, Seepersad Naipaul, however, was able to carve out an unlikely career for himself. Without formal schooling, and by dint of effort, he became an English-language journalist in what was then still a largely illiterate land. By the time of his first son's birth, he was working as the provincial Chaguanas correspondent for the ''Trinidad Guardian''. In the long essay, "A prologue to an autobiography," published as part of the collection ''Finding the centre'' (1981), Naipaul describes how Seepersad's elevation of writing as the noble profession, the English language its exceptional medium, and English literature its hallowed legacy, came to spawn the dreams and aspirations of his oldest son. Later, when Naipaul was seven, his family moved to Trinidad's capital ], where his father began work at the ''Guardian'' 's headquarters. Here, after overcoming some of his provincial shyness, Naipaul began to excel at school. Some experiences from this period form the vivid opening chapter of his novel, '']''.


==Bibliography== ==Bibliography==

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Sir V. S. Naipaul
TC
BornVidiadhar Surajprasad Naipaul
(1932-08-17) 17 August 1932 (age 92)
Chaguanas, Trinidad and Tobago
OccupationNovelist, travel writer, essayist
NationalityTrinidadian, British
GenreNovel, Essay
Notable worksA House for Mr. Biswas
A Bend in the River
The Enigma of Arrival
In a Free State
Notable awardsBooker Prize
1971
Nobel Prize in Literature
2001
SpousePatricia Ann Hale Naipaul (1955 - 1996) Nadira Khannum Alvi Naipaul (1996 - present)

Sir Vidiadhar Surajprasad Naipaul, commonly, V. S. Naipaul, (/ˈnaɪpɔːl/ or /naɪˈpɔːl/; b. 17 August 1932) is a British writer born and raised in Trinidad to which his grandfather had emigrated from India as an indentured servant. Naipaul is known for the wistfully comic early novels of Trinidad, the bleaker thematically expansive later novels of the wider world, and the vigilant chronicles of his travels and life, all written in his trademark, widely admired, prose style.

In 2001, V. S. Naipaul was awarded the Nobel Prize in Literature.

Patricia Ann Hale, whom Naipaul married in 1955, served until her death 41 years later as first reader, editor, and critic of his writings. To her, in 2011, Naipaul dedicated his breakthrough novel, A House for Mr. Biswas, of a half-century before.

Early life

V. S. Naipaul, familiarly Vidia, was born on 17 August 1932 in the small town of Chaguanas, Trinidad and Tobago. He was the second child and first son born to mother Dropatie and father Seepersad Naipaul. A half-century earlier, his paternal grandfather had emigrated from India—from a village in the North-Western Provinces in the lower Gangetic Plain—to work as an indentured servant in the sugar plantations near Chaguanas. During that same time, their prospects ravaged by the Great Famine of 1876–1878, many Indians had emigrated to other outposts of the British Empire, such as Fiji, Guyana, and Suriname, where, although slavery had been abolished, slave labor was still in demand.

His father, Seepersad Naipaul, however, was able to carve out an unlikely career for himself. Without formal schooling, and by dint of effort, he became an English-language journalist in what was then still a largely illiterate land. By the time of his first son's birth, he was working as the provincial Chaguanas correspondent for the Trinidad Guardian. In the long essay, "A prologue to an autobiography," published as part of the collection Finding the centre (1981), Naipaul describes how Seepersad's elevation of writing as the noble profession, the English language its exceptional medium, and English literature its hallowed legacy, came to spawn the dreams and aspirations of his oldest son. Later, when Naipaul was seven, his family moved to Trinidad's capital Port of Spain, where his father began work at the Guardian 's headquarters. Here, after overcoming some of his provincial shyness, Naipaul began to excel at school. Some experiences from this period form the vivid opening chapter of his novel, A Way in the World.

Bibliography

Fiction
Non-fiction

Further reading

  • Athill, Diana (2000) Stet. An Editor's Life (Grove Press)
  • Schutte, Gillian (2010) Behind Sir Vidia’s Masque: The Night the Naipauls Came to Supper (Book Southern Africa).
  • Girdharry, Arnold (2004) The Wounds of Naipaul and the Women in His Indian Trilogy (Copley).
  • Barnouw, Dagmar (2003) Naipaul's Strangers (Indiana University Press).
  • Dissanayake, Wimal (1993) Self and Colonial Desire: Travel Writings of V.S. Naipaul (P. Lang).
  • French, Patrick (2008) The World Is What It Is: The Authorized Biography of V. S. Naipaul (Random House)
  • Hamner, Robert (1973). V.S. Naipaul (Twayne).
  • Hammer, Robert ed. (1979) Critical Perspectives on V.S. Naipaul (Heinemann).
  • Hayward, Helen (2002) The Enigma of V.S. Naipaul: Sources and Contexts (Macmillan).
  • Hughes, Peter (1988) V.S. Naipaul (Routledge).
  • Jarvis, Kelvin (1989) V.S. Naipaul: A Selective Bibliography with Annotations, 1957–1987 (Scarecrow).
  • Jussawalla, Feroza, ed. (1997) Conversations with V.S. Naipaul (University Press of Mississippi).
  • Kelly, Richard (1989) V.S. Naipaul (Continuum).
  • Khan, Akhtar Jamal (1998) V.S. Naipaul: A Critical Study (Creative Books)
  • King, Bruce (1993) V.S. Naipaul (Macmillan).
  • King, Bruce (2003) V.S. Naipaul, 2nd ed (Macmillan)
  • Kramer, Jane (13 April 1980) From the Third World, an assessment of Naipaul's work in the New York Times Book Review.
  • Levy, Judith (1995) V.S. Naipaul: Displacement and Autobiography (Garland).
  • Nightingale, Peggy (1987) Journey through Darkness: The Writing of V.S. Naipaul (University of Queensland Press).
  • Said, Edward (1986) Intellectuals in the Post-Colonial World (Salmagundi).
  • Theroux, Paul (1998) Sir Vidia's Shadow: A Friendship across Five Continents (Houghton Mifflin).
  • Theroux, Paul (1972). V.S. Naipaul: An Introduction to His Work (Deutsch).
  • Weiss, Timothy F (1992) On the Margins: The Art of Exile in V.S. Naipaul (University of Massachusetts Press).

References

  1. Cite error: The named reference BBCdescent was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
  2. "The Nobel Prize in Literature 2001". Nobelprize.org.

External links

Works by V. S. Naipaul
Novels
Non-fiction
Awards received by V. S. Naipaul
Laureates of the Nobel Prize in Literature
1901–1920
1921–1940
1941–1960
1961–1980
1981–2000
2001–2020
2021–present
Recipients of the Booker Prize
1969–79
1980s
1990s
2000s
2010s
2020s
David Cohen Prize
1990s
2000s
2010s
2020s

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