V.S. Naipaul

V. S. Naipaul
V. S. Naipaul by David Levine

V. S. Naipaul was born in Trinidad in 1932 and emigrated to England in 1950, when he won a scholarship to University College, Oxford. He is the author of many novels, including A House for Mr. Biswas, A Bend in the River, and In a Free State, which won the Booker Prize. He has also written several nonfiction works based on his travels, including India: A Million Mutinies Now and Beyond Belief: Islamic Excursions Among the Converted Peoples. He was knighted in 1990 and in 1993 was the first recipient of the David Cohen British Literature Prize.

From the Review

March 4, 1999: The Writer and India*

February 18, 1999: Reading & Writing*

June 11, 1998: Indonesia: The Man of the Moment*

May 12, 1994: A Way In the World*

February 13, 1992: The End of Peronism?*

January 30, 1992: Argentina: Living With Cruelty*

April 11, 1991: A Handful of Dust: Return to Guiana*

January 31, 1991: Our Universal Civilization*

December 20, 1990: The Shadow of the Guru*

January 19, 1989: A Turn in Atlanta*

December 22, 1988: Rednecks*

April 23, 1987: On Being a Writer

February 12, 1987: The Ceremony of Farewell*

October 25, 1984: Among the Republicans

November 24, 1983: Writing 'A House for Mr. Biswas'*

December 16, 1982: A Note on a Borrowing by Conrad*

October 8, 1981: Tehran Winter*

October 11, 1979: Argentine Terror: A Memoir*

May 3, 1979: The Flight from the Fire*

March 22, 1979: Indian Art and Its Illusions*

Much Maligned Monsters: The History of European Reactions to Indian Art by Partha Mitter

The Classical Tradition in Rajput Painting by Pratapaditya Pal

Coomaraswamy Vol.3: His Life and Work by Roger Lipsey. (Reviewed by Philip Rawson The New York Review, February 22, 1979)

Imperial Mughal Painting by Stuart Cary Welch

Indian Painting by Toby Falk, by Robert Skelton

Room for Wonder: Indian Painting During the British Period, 1760-1880 by Stuart Cary Welch

A Historical Atlas of South Asia edited by Joseph E. Schwartzberg

Indian Medieval Sculpture by Aschwin de Lippe

January 20, 1977: India: Renaissance or Continuity?*

October 28, 1976: India: Paradise Lost*

September 16, 1976: India: Synthesis and Mimicry*

August 5, 1976: India: A Defect of Vision*

June 24, 1976: India: New Claim on the Land*

June 10, 1976: Bombay: The Skyscrapers and the Chawls*

May 13, 1976: The Wounds of India*

April 29, 1976: India: A Wounded Civilization*

June 26, 1975: A New King for the Congo*

November 28, 1974: The Secret Agent (letter)

October 17, 1974: Conrad's Darkness*

September 19, 1974: Argentina: The Brothels Behind the Graveyard*

April 4, 1974: A Country Dying on Its Feet*

October 19, 1972: Comprehending Borges*

August 10, 1972: The Corpse at the Iron Gate*

May 18, 1972: Without a Dog's Chance*

After Leaving Mr. Mackenzie by Jean Rhys

November 4, 1971: The Circus at Luxor Epilogue to a Novel*

September 3, 1970: Power to the Caribbean People*

May 8, 1969: St. Kitts: Papa and the Power Set*

April 24, 1969: Anguilla: The Shipwrecked 6000*

October 31, 1963: Black Man's Burden*

Jamaican Blood and Victorian Conscience by Bernard Semmel

From New York Review Books

Reading and Writing
In this essay of literary autobiography, V. S. Naipaul sifts through memories of his childhood in Trinidad, his university days in England, and his earliest attempts at writing, seeking the experiences of life and reading that shaped his imagination and his growth as a writer.

Books by V.S. Naipaul

Literary Occasions: Essays (2003)
The Writer and the World: Essays (2003)
The Mystic Masseur (2002)
Half a Life (2001)
Reading & Writing: a Personal Account (2000)
Letters Between a Father and Son (1999)
Beyond Belief: Islamic Excursions Among the Converted Peoples (1998)
A Way in the World: a Novel (1994)
Bombay: Gateway of India (1994)
India, a Million Mutinies Now (1990)
A Turn in the South (1989)
An Unfinished Journey (1988)
The Enigma of Arrival: a Novel (1987)
Beyond the Dragon's Mouth: Stories and Pieces (1985)
Finding the Centre: Two Narratives (1984)
Among the Believers: an Islamic Journey (1981)
East Indians in the Caribbean: Colonialism and the Struggle for Identity (1981)
The Return of Eva Peron, with the Killings in Trinidad (1980)
A Bend in the River (1979)
India: a Wounded Civilization (1977)
Guerrillas (1975)
The Overcrowded Barracoon (1973)
In a Free State (1971)
Island Voices: Stories from the West Indies (1970)
The Loss of El Dorado: a History (1969)
A Flag on the Island (1967)
The Mimic Men (1967)
An Area of Darkness (1964)
Mr. Stone and the Knights Companion (1963)
The Middle Passage; Impressions of Five Societies, British, French and Dutch, in the West Indies and South America (1962)
A House for Mr. Biswas (1961)
Miguel Street (1959)
The Suffrage of Elvira (1958)