Seepersad Naipaul (; 1906–1953) was an

Indo-Trinidadian Indo-Trinidadians and Tobagonians or Indian-Trinidadians and Tobagonians, are people of Indian origin who are nationals of Trinidad and Tobago whose ancestors came from India and the wider subcontinent beginning in 1845. Indo-Trinidadians and ...

writer. He was the father of

V. S. Naipaul Sir Vidiadhar Surajprasad Naipaul (; 17 August 1932 – 11 August 2018) was a Trinidadian-born British writer of works of fiction and nonfiction in English. He is known for his comic early novels set in Trinidad, his bleaker novels of alienati ...

Shiva Naipaul Shiva Naipaul (; 25 February 1945 – 13 August 1985), born Shivadhar Srinivasa Naipaul in Port of Spain, Trinidad and Tobago, was an Indo-Trinidadian and British novelist and journalist. Life and work Shiva Naipaul was the younger brother of ...

, Kamla Tewari (''

née A birth name is the name of a person given upon birth. The term may be applied to the surname, the given name, or the entire name. Where births are required to be officially registered, the entire name entered onto a birth certificate or birth ...

'' Naipaul), and Sati Bissoondath (''née'' Naipaul), and married into the influential Hindu Indo-Trinidadian

Capildeo family The Capildeo family () is an Indo-Trinidadian and Tobagonian family of Hindu pundits, politicians, and writers. The most notable members are 2001 Nobel laureate V. S. Naipaul and mathematician and politician Rudranath Capildeo. The ancestral ...

Career

Seepersad Naipaul worked as the first

journalist for the ''

Trinidad Guardian The ''Trinidad and Tobago Guardian'' (together with the ''Sunday Guardian'') is the oldest daily newspaper in Trinidad and Tobago. The paper is considered the newspaper of record for Trinidad and Tobago. History Its first edition was published ...

''. His only book, ''The Adventures of Gurudeva'', is a collection of linked comic short stories that was first published in

Trinidad and Tobago Trinidad and Tobago (, ), officially the Republic of Trinidad and Tobago, is the southernmost island country in the Caribbean. Consisting of the main islands Trinidad and Tobago, and numerous much List of islands of Trinidad and Tobago, small ...

in 1943 (under the title ''Gurudeva and Other Indian Tales''). The elder Naipaul wanted his son "Vido" (as he called him) to try to get his story collection published in

London London is the capital and List of urban areas in the United Kingdom, largest city of England and the United Kingdom, with a population of just under 9 million. It stands on the River Thames in south-east England at the head of a estuary dow ...

, in the hope that any money it earned would help the family escape from the

poverty Poverty is the state of having few material possessions or little income. Poverty can have diverse < ...

in which they lived in

. The book was not published in London until after Seepersad's death. ''Between Father and Son: Family Letters'' (edited by

Gillon Aitken Gillon Reid Aitken (29 March 1938 – 28 October 2016) was an English literary agent and founder of the agency Aitken Alexander Associates. He was born in Calcutta and spent his early years in Darjeeling, before attending boarding school in the U ...

), correspondence with V. S. Naipaul, and other family members, dating from around the time Vidia won a scholarship to

Oxford University Oxford () is a city in England. It is the county town and only city of Oxfordshire. In 2020, its population was estimated at 151,584. It is north-west of London, south-east of Birmingham and north-east of Bristol. The city is home to the ...

until the older Naipaul's death, was published in 1999, and extracted in ''

The New Yorker ''The New Yorker'' is an American weekly magazine featuring journalism, commentary, criticism, essays, fiction, satire, cartoons, and poetry. Founded as a weekly in 1925, the magazine is published 47 times annually, with five of these issue ...

''.V. S. Naipaul, Personal History, "Letters Between Father and Son", ''The New Yorker'', December 13, 1999, p. 66.
/ref>

References

1906 births 1953 deaths Seepersad Trinidad and Tobago Hindus Trinidad and Tobago journalists 20th-century journalists {{Caribbean-writer-stub

Career

See also

References