Vikram Seth

Vikram Seth, CBE (born 20 June 1952) is

an Indian novelist and poet. He has written
several novels and poetry books. He has
received several awards such as Padma
Shri, Sahitya Academy Award, Pravasi
Bharatiya Samman, WH Smith Literary
Award and Crossword Book Award. Seth's
collections of poetry such as Mappings
and Beastly Tales are notable contributions
to the Indian English language poetry
canon.
 Vikram Seth
CBE

Vikram Seth in 2009

Born 20 June 1952
Kolkata, West Bengal,
India
Occupation Novelist, poet
Nationality Indian
Alma mater St. Michael's High
School, Patna
Welham Boys' School
The Doon School
 Corpus Christi College,
Oxford
Stanford University
Period 1980–present
Genre Novels, poetry, libretto,
travel writing, children's
literature,
biography/memoir
Notable works A Suitable Boy
The Golden Gate
An Equal Music
A Suitable Girl

Vikram Seth's voice

from the BBC programme Desert Island Discs,

22 January 2012.[1]

Website
www.vikramseth.net
Birth and Early life
Vikram Seth was born on 20 June 1952 in
Calcutta. His father, Prem Nath Seth, was
an executive of Bata Shoes and his
mother, Leila Seth, a barrister by training,
became the first female Chief Justice of
the Delhi High Court.[2]

He studied at St. Michael's High School,

Patna and at The Doon School in
Dehradun, where he edited The Doon
School Weekly.[3] After graduating from
Doon, Seth went to Tonbridge School,
England, to complete his A-levels.[4][5][6] He
also studied at St. Xavier's High School,
Patna.[7] Later he moved to the United
Kingdom and read Philosophy, Politics and
Economics at Corpus Christi College,
Oxford. He then pursued a Ph.D. in
Economics at Stanford University though
never completed it.[3][8][9]

Work and Style

Seth has published eight books of poetry
and four novels. In 1980, he wrote
Mappings, his first book of poetry. The
publication of A Suitable Boy, a 1,349-page
novel, propelled Seth into the public
limelight. His second novel An Equal Music
deals with the troubled love life of a
violinist. Seth's work Two Lives published
in 2005 is a memoir of the marriage of his
great uncle and aunt.

In addition to The Golden Gate, Seth has

written other works of poetry including
Mappings (1980), The Humble
Administrator's Garden (1985), All You Who
Sleep Tonight (1990) and Three Chinese
Poets (1992). His children's book, Beastly
Tales from Here and There (1992) consists
of ten stories about animals. He has
authored a travel book, From Heaven Lake:
Travels through Sinkiang and Tibet (1983),
an account of a journey through Tibet,
China and Nepal. Vikram Seth was also
commissioned by the English National
Opera to write a libretto based on the
Greek legend of Arion and the Dolphin. The
opera was performed for the first time in
June 1994.

Life and Career

Seth's former literary agent Giles Gordon
recalled being interviewed by Seth for the
position, "Vikram sat at one end of a long
table and he began to grill us. It was
absolutely incredible. He wanted to know
our literary tastes, our views on poetry, our
views on plays, which novelists we
liked.[10] Seth later explained to Gordon
that he had passed the interview not
because of commercial considerations,
but because unlike the others he was the
only agent who seemed as interested in
his poetry as in his other writing. Seth
followed what he has described as "the
ludicrous advance for that book"
(£250,000 for A Suitable Boy[11]) with
£500,000 for An Equal Music and
£1.4 million for Two Lives.[12] He prepared
an acrostic poem[13] for his address at
Gordon's 2005 memorial service.[14]

Seth was made a Commander of the Order

of the British Empire in 2001.

Bibliography
Novels

The Golden Gate (1986)[15]

A Suitable Boy (1993)
An Equal Music (1999)[16]
A Suitable Girl (forthcoming)

Poetry

Mappings (1980)
The Humble Administrator's Garden
(1985)
All You Who Sleep Tonight (1990)
Beastly Tales (1991)
Three Chinese Poets (1992)
The Frog and the Nightingale (1994)
 The Tale Of Melon City
Summer Requiem: A Book of Poems
(2012)

Children's fiction

Arion and the Dolphin (1994)

Non-fiction

From Heaven Lake: Travels Through

Sinkiang and Tibet (1983)
Two Lives (2005)
The Rivered Earth[17](2011)

Appearances in the following

poetry Anthologies
 The Golden Treasure of Writers Workshop
Poetry (2008) ed. by Rubana Huq and
published by Writers Workshop,
Calcutta[18]
The Oxford India Anthology of Twelve
Modern Indian Poets (1992) ed. by
Arvind Krishna Mehrotra and published
by Oxford University Press, New
Delhi[19][20]

Personal life
Having lived in London for many years,
Seth maintains residences near Salisbury,
England, where he is a participant in local
literary and cultural events, having bought
and renovated the house of the Anglican
poet George Herbert in 1996,[21] and in
Jaipur, India.

In 2006, he became a leader of the

campaign against Section 377 of the
Indian Penal Code, a law against
sodomy.[22] His mother has written about
Seth's homosexuality and her coming to
terms with it in her memoir.[23]

Awards
1983 – Thomas Cook Travel Book
Award for From Heaven Lake: Travels
Through Sinkiang and Tibet
1985 – Commonwealth Poetry Prize
(Asia) for The Humble Administrator's
Garden
1988 – Sahitya Akademi Award for The
Golden Gate
1993 – Irish Times International Fiction
Prize (shortlist) for A Suitable Boy
1994 – Commonwealth Writers Prize
(Overall Winner, Best Book) for A
Suitable Boy
1994 – WH Smith Literary Award for A
Suitable Boy
1999 – Crossword Book Award for An
Equal Music
2001 – Order of the British Empire,
Officer
 2001 – EMMA (BT Ethnic and
Multicultural Media Award) for Best
Book/Novel for An Equal Music
2005 – Pravasi Bharatiya Samman
2007 – Padma Shri in Literature &
Education[24]
2013 – The 25 Greatest Global Living
Legends In India

References
1. "Vikram Seth" . Desert Island Discs. 22
January 2012. BBC Radio 4. Retrieved
18 January 2014.
2. Angela Atkins (26 June 2002). Vikram
Seth's Suitable Boy: A Reader's Guide .
A&C Black. p. 7. ISBN 978-0-8264-
5707-3.
3. "Vikram Seth" . ekikrat.in. Retrieved
24 November 2015.
4. Gupta, R. (2005). Vikram Sath's Art: An
Appraisal . Atlantic Publishers &
Distributors. p. 2.
ISBN 9788126905508. Retrieved
24 November 2015.
5. "Vikram s Christi College, Oxford" .
6. Atkins, A. (2002). Vikram Seth's
Suitable Boy: A Reader's Guide .
Bloomsbury Academic. p. 8.
ISBN 9780826457073. Retrieved
24 November 2015.
7. "Alumni – St.Xavier's High School" .
stxavierspatna.in. Archived from the
original on 25 November 2015.
Retrieved 24 November 2015.
8. "The Golden Gate returns to Stanford
May 30" . news.stanford.edu.
Retrieved 24 November 2015.
 9. Vikram Seth's Founder's Day Address,
The Doon School, Penguin Books of
Modern Speeches (2009) p.34
"...edited the Weekly and did other
things"
10. Gavron, Jeremy (27 March 1999), "A
suitable joy" , The Guardian, London,
retrieved 5 September 2007."
11. Vikram Seth writes Suitable Boy
sequel in The Guardian]] 3 July 2009
12. Bhatia, Shyam (1 September 2003),
"Seth to get at least $3 million
advance" , Rediff.com, retrieved
5 September 2007.
13. "Archived copy" . Archived from the
original on 15 August 2004. Retrieved
26 February 2017.
14. "Vikram Seth – Vikram Seth Biography
– Poem Hunter" . poemhunter.com.
Retrieved 24 November 2015.
15. "Vikram Seth" , DoonOnline: Features &
Spotlights, archived from the original
on 16 May 2006, retrieved
5 September 2007.
16. Albertazzi, Silvia (20 January 2005),
"An equal music, an alien world:
postcolonial literature and the
representation of European culture" ,
European Review, Cambridge
University Press, 13, pp. 103–113,
doi:10.1017/S1062798705000104 .
17. "Times of India by Shobha John, TNN:
27 Nov 2011, 05.13 am IST : 'I got
drunk to write, says Vikram Seth' " ,
The Times Of India, India, 27
November 2011.
18. "Rubana Huq, ed. The Golden Treasury
of Writers Workshop Poetry. Review :
ASIATIC, VOLUME 3, NUMBER 1, JUNE
2009" . journals.iium.edu.my.
journals.iium.edu.my. Retrieved
4 September 2018.
19. "The Oxford India Anthology of Twelve
Modern Indian Poets" . cse.iitk.ac.in.
cse.iitk.ac.in. Retrieved 23 August
2018.
20. "Book review: 'Twelve Modern Indian
Poets' by Arvind Krishna Mehrotra" .
indiatoday.in. indiatoday.in. Retrieved
23 August 2018.
21. Lewis, Leo; Island, Jindo (29 July
2006), "Listening to God's melodies" ,
The Times, London, retrieved
5 September 2007
22. "It Took Me Long To Come To Terms
With Myself. Those Were Painful
hardware core Years." , Outlook India,
2 October 2006, retrieved 5 September
2007
23. "Delhi High Court Chief Justice Leila
Seth reveals a mother's trial with a
leap of faith" . Daily Mail. London.
24. "Padma Awards" (PDF). Ministry of
Home Affairs, Government of India.
2015. Archived from the original (PDF)
on 15 November 2014. Retrieved
21 July 2015.
Chaudhuri, Amit (ed.). "Vikram Seth
(born 1952)." The Vintage Book of
Modern Indian Literature. New York:
Vintage, 2004:508–537.

External links

Wikimedia Commons has media

related to Vikram Seth.

The Telegraph ("Love split delayed

Suitable Boy sequel")
 British Council Bio
Vikram Seth on IMDb
"Poetic License" by Cynthia Haven,
"Stanford Magazine," May/June 1999
Selected poems of Vikram Seth from
Poemist
BOMB Magazine interview with Vikram
Seth by Ameena Meer

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