Maya Angelou

America’s most visible black autobiographer, Maya Angelou was born on April 4, 1928 at St. Louis, Missouri, USA. She is an American author, poet of repute and is renowned for her six autobiographical volumes, which focus on her childhood and early adult experiences. “I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings” is her first and most highly acclaimed work. Apart from international recognition, what the book did was to catapult her to a level where her works got nominated for awards. The national awards and Pulitzer prize nomination for 1971 volume of poetry,” Just Give Me a Cool Drink of Water for I Diiie” is a proof of it. Angelou was also the member of the Harlem Writers Guild in the late 1950s and was an active member of Civil Rights Movement.

What more can be said, she also served for Martin Luther King Jr and renowned in the lecture circuit, having made more than ninety appearances. She also hods the longest running  record on the Newyork Times Paperback Notification besr seller list in 1995.  Besides she is also a dancer, film producer, television producer, playwright, film director, author, actress, professor.

“Singin-and-swingin-and-gettin-merry-christmas, Wouldnt-take-nothing-my-journey-now and Heart of a woman” are her other important works.

I long, as does every human being, to be at home wherever I find myself.

Maya Angelou.

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Toni Morrison

Toni Morrison (February18, 1931) was born in Ohio in a working class family. Morrison’s father told her numerous folktales of the black community (a method of storytelling that would later form an integral part of Morrison’s writings). She is an award winning novelist, professor and editor. She has won the Pulitzer and noble prize for her inspirational works in the field of literature. Her novels are known for their epic themes, vivid dialogue, and richly detailed black characters.

Her important works include  “The Paradise”, “The bluest Eye”,” Song of Solomon” and “Beloved”.

In addition to her novels, Morrison has also co-written books for children along with her younger son, Slade Morrison, who specializes as a painter and musician. She also wrote articles in support of Bill Clinton when the talks related to his impeachment were doing its round in 1998.

At some point in life the world’s beauty becomes enough. You don’t need to photograph, paint or even remember it. It is enough.

                                                       —- Toni Morrison

Len Deighton

Len Dighton (February 18, 1929) was born in London to working class family. He is a renowned British military historian, cookery writer and novelist.  Deighton took keen interest in spy stories right from his childhood. He is perhaps most remembered for his spy novel, The Ipcress File which was made into a film starring Michael Caine. Besides being a writer he also worked as an art director in London advertising agency, travel editor for Playboy magazine, photographer. He was also a film producer wherein he produced film adaption of his novels.

Len Dighton’s most famous works include” Mamista “and” The fighter”.

Anyone can write one book: even politicians do it. Starting a second book reveals an intention to be a professional writer.

                                    —– Len Deighton

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Alice Walker

Alice Walker (born February 9, 1944) is a well known African-American author and poet. Meeting the legendary Martin Luther King when she was a student completely changed her perspective towards life and literature. Her literary works are mainly based on gender and racial issues. She has been awarded with the prestigious Pulitzer Prize for fiction in the year 1983.

“The Temple of my Familiar” and “The Colour Purple” are by far her best creations.

“And so our mothers and grandmothers have, more often than not anonymously, handed on the creative spark, the seed of the flower they themselves never hoped to see – or like a sealed letter they could not plainly read.”

                                                                      - Alice Walker

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Jerry Siegel

(October 17, 1914 – January 28, 1996)

“It’s a Bird…It’s a Plane…It’s Superman.” For millions of comic book fans across the world, these lines automatically conjure the image of the most popular superhero till date: Superman. But what most do not know is that Superman was first introduced in 1933 as a bald telepathic villain determined to dominate the world. He appeared in a short story called “The Reign of Superman” in a science fiction fanzine printed by Jerome Siegel and was a flop.

Jerome Siegel was born in Cleveland, Ohio to Jewish immigrants from Lithuania. The youngest of six children he was a big fan of comic books and science fiction and went on to start the first Science Fiction fanzine. It was there that he published all his sci-fi stories that has been rejected by various sci-fi magazines. At the age of 16 he met Canadian born artist Joseph Shuster and the two became good friends. They started created characters and stories together and in 1933 the villainous Superman was born. According to comic book legend, one night in 1934, Jerome kept tossing and turning in bed. Suddenly he had a vision and Superman in his new positive avtaar was born. But for 6 years, the superhero had no takers and Shuster in a fit of anger and desperation burnt the entire strip. Siegel managed to save the cover of the strip though and in June 1938, just a few months after the first costumed superhero Phantom was born, the world met Superman in National Action Comics. He was an instant success and in 1939 he made his appearance as a newspaper comic strip. Ten years later when the contract with National expired, Siegel and Shuster sued for rights over the superhero character. Subsequently, Siegel went on to write for Marvel comics and Archie Comics and created many other superheroes, but none came close to Superman. In 1996, Siegel died in Los Angeles. In 2005, he was posthumously awarded the Bill Finger Award For Excellence in Comic Book Writing.

Robert Jordan

(October 17, 1948 – September 16, 2007)

Source: wikipedia

Born James Oliver Rigney, Jr. in Charleston, South Carolina, Robert learnt how to read at the age of 4 with the help of his 12 year old brother. At the age of five he was engrossed in Mark Twain and Jules Verne. He served as a helicopter gunner in Vietnam for 2 years and earned many military honours. Later he rejoined college and obtained an undergraduate degree in Physics. He went to work as a nuclear engineer in the US Navy. Jordan enjoyed hunting, fishing, and sailing, and collected pipes. It was in 1977 that he began writing. He wrote the Wheel of Time series which is often regarded as the best selling series in the history of Fantasy. Jordan also wrote dance and theatre criticism.In 2006, Jordan was diagnosed with a rare blood disorder, cardiac amyloidosis. He died on September 16, 2007 but before his death he disclosed all the details of Book 12 (the final volume of the Wheel of Time series that has now been divided into 3 parts) to his family. The second part of this final book is due for release this November.

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On July 11, this week, two award winning authors of Indian origin celebrated their birthday. Join us as we try and learn a little more about these writers who have done INDIA proud and who have kept us engaged with their thoughts, observations, creativity and writing skills.

AMITAV GHOSH

Born in Kolkatta on July 11, 1956, Ghosh studied at the Doon School and St Stephens College New Delhi before getting a D.Phil in Social Anthropology from Oxford University. Ghosh’s first job was with the Indian Express in New Delhi. In 1986 he published his first novel, the Circle of Reason and won the Prix Medici Estranger, one of France’s top literary awards. In 1999, Ghosh joined the faculty at Queens College, City University of New York as Distinguished Professor in Comparative Literature.  Since 2005, he has been a visiting professor at Harvard University.

Ghosh is married to writer Deborah Baker and has two children, Lila and Nayan. He commutes between Kolkatta, Goa (where he has bought a house) and Brooklyn.

Often categorised as historical fiction, Ghosh’s works show an intense understanding of human nature.  His characters are living, breathing people whom his readers, meet, understand and befriend. His prose, original. His themes, unique and cross-cultural. In his own words, “My work is about people who find themselves in many different kinds of predicament, historical and contemporary…my most important characters are never those who see things in black and white; nor do they resort to easy judgements. In my view all important ethical and political judgements are difficult; what is more they are always specific to the situation at hand.”

Ghosh’s  novels bring alive different times and places and provide readers with rich cultural and sociological experiences. Where does reality end and fiction begin? The blending is so perfect, so seamless that it is almost impossible to tell. This perhaps explains the string of awards won by him. The Shadow Lines won the Sahitya Akademi Award, India’s most prestigious literary award.The Calcutta Chromosome won the Arthur C. Clarke Award for 1997. The Glass Palace won the Grand Prize for Fiction at the Frankfurt International e-Book Awards in 2001.  The Hungry Tide won the Hutch Crossword Book Prize in 2006. In 2007 Amitav Ghosh was awarded the Grinzane Cavour Prize in Turin, Italy. Sea of Poppies was shortlisted for the 2008 Booker Prize. In 2007, Ghosh was awarded the Padma Shri.   Earlier this year Ghosh along with Margaret Atwood was awarded the Dan David prize, which found him in the midst of a huge controversy.

JHUMPA LAHIRI

Born in London on July 11, 1967, Jhumpa had been writing stories in her notebooks since her school days. However, it was only when she took up a research assistantship with a non-profit organisation in Cambridge, that her life as a writer began. In her own words, “For the first time I had a computer of my own at my desk, and I started writing fiction again, more seriously. I used to stay late and come in to work on stories. Eventually I had enough material to apply to the creative writing program at Boston University. But once that ended, unsure of what to do next, I went on to graduate school and got my Ph.D. In the process, it became clear to me that I was not meant to be a scholar. It was something I did out of a sense of duty and practicality, but it was never something I loved. I still wrote stories on the side, publishing things here and there. The year I finished my dissertation, I was also accepted to the Fine Arts Work Center in Provincetown, and that changed everything. It was something of a miracle. In seven months I got an agent, sold a book, and had a story published in The New Yorker. I’ve been extremely lucky. It’s been the happiest possible ending.”

In 2000, her debut short stories collection, The Interpreter of Maladies won the Pulitzer Prize., the PEN/Hemingway Award and The New Yorker Debut of the Year. She wrote her debut novel, the Namesake in 2003 and it was adapted into a popular movie, directed by Mira Nair. Her second collection of short stories, The Unaccustomed Earth, was released in 2008 and debuted as number 1 on the New York Best sellers list.

The daughter of Bengali Indian immigrants, Jhumpa was born as Nilanjana Sudeshna but became known by her pet name as it was easier to pronounce.. Her family moved to the US when she was just three and Lahiri considers herself to be an American. She obtained a number of degrees from Boston University including a Ph.D. in Renaissance Studies. She is currently a member of the President’s Committee on the Arts and Humanities, appointed by US President Barack Obama. Jhumpa is married to journalist Alberto Vourvoulias-Bush and lives in Brooklyn with her two children.

Jhumpa’s stories are often autobiographical and dwell upon the dilemmas, trials and anxieties of her parents, friends, neighbours and other immigrants.  Written in simple English, her stories are popular for their sensitivity and their exploration of immigrant psychology and behaviour.

William Clark Styron, Jr.

American novelist who won major literary awards for his work, his fictitious memoirs of Nat Turner became a runaway critical and financial success amidst heated controversy. He was awarded the Pulitzer Prize for fiction in 1968.

For much of his career, Styron was best known for his novels, which included:

Lie Down in Darkness (1951),

The Confessions of Nat Turner (1967)

Sophie’s Choice (1979)

Another Country (1962)

Allan Gurganus

American novelist and short story writer, his work is often influenced by and set in his native North Carolina. His writing has been compared to the work of William Faulkner and Eudora Welty.

Some of his works are:

Oldest Living Confederate Widow Tells All (1984)

White People (1990)

The Practical Heart (1993

Plays Well With Others (1997)

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Saul Bellow

Canadian-born American writer, he was awarded the Pulitzer Prize and the Nobel Prize for Literature, and the National Medal of Arts. He is the only writer to have won the National Book Award three times, and the only writer to have been nominated for it six times. Widely regarded as one of the twentieth century’s greatest authors, Bellow has had a huge literary influence on many writers as well.

Some of his famous novels are:

Dangling Man (1944)

Mr. Sammler’s Planet (1972)

The Actual (1997)

Ravelstein (2000)

Marion Chesney

Popular and prolific Scottish author, she has written numerous successful historical romance novels. Using the pseudonym M. C. Beaton, she has also written many popular mystery novels.. She has also written under the pseudonyms Sarah Chester, Helen Crampton, Ann Fairfax, Marion Gibbons, Jennie Tremaine and Charlotte Ward.

Some of her famous works include:

My Dear Duchess (1979)

A House for the Season Series

The Traveling Matchmaker Series

Hamish Macbeth Series

Linda Lael Miller

Best-selling American author of more than seventy contemporary and historical romance novels, she has also written under the pen name Lael St. James. Nominated six times for the RITA Award, she has also won the Silver Pen Award as well as the Romantic Times award for Most Sensual Historical Romance.

Some of her famous works are:

Springwater Series

McKettrick Series

Stone Creek Series

The Quade Series

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It’s great when less popular literature gets recognition, and there’s nothing wrong with awards going to authors unheard of by the general public. But sometimes its just plain absurd when a deserving book goes unnoticed. Here are a few of the overlooked greats that deserved to have won, yet lost out to some of the most questionable decisions made in literature:

The Great Gatsby, F. Scott Fitzgerald
Despite being its roaring success and being adapted into both Broadway and Hollywood within a year of its publication, The Great Gatsby never won a single literature prize. The winner of the Pulitzer in 1925, the year it was published was, instead, So Big by Edna Ferber, a story inspired by the life of Antje Paarlberg.

William Faulkner
Faulkner never won a literature prize until more than 20 years after his greatest works of fiction were published. Overlooked for the Pulitzer time and again, Faulkner was awarded the Nobel Prize in Literature in 1949. He later won the Pulitzer twice for A Fable and The Reivers, both considered minor novels compared to earlier greats like As I Lay Dying and The Sound and the Fury.

Lolita, Vladimir Nabokov
Nabokov is widely regarded as one of the greatest writers of the 21st century, and Lolita is his most well-respected novel. Ground breaking in terms of its intricate style, controversial subject matter  and its fascinating and unreliable narrator but it lost to The Magic Barrel by Bernard Malamud after being shortlisted for the National Book Award in 1959.

The Handmaid’s Tale, Margaret Atwood
Though The Handmaid’s Tale was awarded a couple of minor literature prizes, it was majorly overlooked when it came to the 1986 Booker Prize. Though nominated, this classic feminist dystopian novel lost to Kingsley Amis’s The Old Devils, a novel which seems to have long been forgotten.

Howl and Other Poems, Allen Ginsberg
“Howl” has gone down in history as one of the central works of the Beat Generation. It has become one of the most popular poems of its generation and beyond. Yet, Howl never won any literature awards, possibly because of its controversial language, which was originally considered obscene.

L. Frank Baum

American author of children’s books, best known for writing The Wizard of Oz. He had a deep love for  theatre and performed different roles in many plays,  under the stage names of Louis F. Baum and George Brooks. His works predicted such century-later commonplaces as television, laptop computers (The Master Key), wireless telephones (Tik-Tok of Oz), and the ubiquity of advertising on clothing (Aunt Jane’s Nieces at Work). Baum made use of several pseudonyms for some of his other, non-Oz books.

Some of his famous works are:

The Wonderful Wizard of Oz (1900)

Mother Goose in Prose (1897)

The Master Key: An Electrical Fairy Tale (1901)

The Fate of a Crown (1905)

Katherine Anne Porter

Pulitzer Prize winning American novelist and political activist, Her 1962 novel Ship of Fools was the best-selling novel in America on the year of its release. Critically acclaimed for her short stories, her work deals with dark themes such as betrayal, death and the origin of human evil.

Some of her famous works are:

Maria Concepcion (1922)

Rope (1928)

The Circus (1944)

A Christmas Story (1967)

Check out the titles available for rent and purchase from these betselling authors at the INDIAreads Online Library cum Bookstore.