Vikram Seth (born 20 June 1952) is an Indian

novelist A novelist is an author or writer of novels, though often novelists also write in other genres of both fiction and non-fiction. Some novelists are professional novelists, thus make a living wage, living writing novels and other fiction, while other ...

and

poet A poet is a person who studies and creates poetry. Poets may describe themselves as such or be described as such by others. A poet may simply be the creator (thought, thinker, songwriter, writer, or author) who creates (composes) poems (oral t ...

. He has written several

novel A novel is an extended work of narrative fiction usually written in prose and published as a book. The word derives from the for 'new', 'news', or 'short story (of something new)', itself from the , a singular noun use of the neuter plural of ...

s and

poetry Poetry (from the Greek language, Greek word ''poiesis'', "making") is a form of literature, literary art that uses aesthetics, aesthetic and often rhythmic qualities of language to evoke meaning (linguistics), meanings in addition to, or in ...

books. He has won several awards such as Padma Shri, Sahitya Akademi Award, Pravasi Bharatiya Samman, WH Smith Literary Award and Crossword Book Award. Seth's collections of

such as '' Mappings'' and '' Beastly Tales'' are notable contributions to the

Indian English Indian English (IndE, IE) or English (India) is a group of English dialects spoken in the Republic of India and among the Indian diaspora and native to India. English is used by the Government of India for communication, and is enshrined ...

language poetry canon.

Early life and education

Seth was born on 20 June 1952 in

Calcutta Kolkata, also known as Calcutta (List of renamed places in India#West Bengal, its official name until 2001), is the capital and largest city of the Indian States and union territories of India, state of West Bengal. It lies on the eastern ba ...

. His father, Prem Nath Seth, was an executive of Bata Shoes and his mother, Leila Seth, a

Barrister A barrister is a type of lawyer in common law jurisdiction (area), jurisdictions. Barristers mostly specialise in courtroom advocacy and litigation. Their tasks include arguing cases in courts and tribunals, drafting legal pleadings, jurisprud ...

by training, became the first female judge of the Delhi High Court and first woman to become Chief justice of a state High Court in India. Seth was educated at the all-boys' private boarding school

The Doon School The Doon School (informally Doon School or Doon) is a Selective school, selective all-boys Private school, private boarding school in Dehradun, Uttarakhand, India, which was established in 1935. It was envisioned by Satish Ranjan Das, a lawyer ...

in Dehradun, where he was editor-in-chief of '' The Doon School Weekly''. At Doon, he was influenced by his teacher, the mountaineer Gurdial Singh, who taught him geography and according to Leila Seth, "guided Vikram in many ways...encouraged him to appreciate Western classical music and instilled in him a love of adventure and daring." Singh later described Seth as an "indefatigable worker, and he maintains without difficulty his distinguished level in studies...he has put in enormous amount of energy in other spheres of school life, in dramatics, in debating, in first aid, in music, and in editing the Doon School Weekly." After graduating from Doon, Seth went to Tonbridge School, England, to complete his

A-levels The A-level (Advanced Level) is a subject-based qualification conferred as part of the General Certificate of Education, as well as a school leaving qualification offered by the educational bodies in the United Kingdom and the educational ...

. Later he read

Philosophy, Politics and Economics Philosophy, politics and economics, or politics, philosophy and economics (PPE), is an interdisciplinary undergraduate or postgraduate academic degree, degree which combines study from three disciplines. The first institution to offer degrees in P ...

at Corpus Christi College,

Oxford Oxford () is a City status in the United Kingdom, cathedral city and non-metropolitan district in Oxfordshire, England, of which it is the county town. The city is home to the University of Oxford, the List of oldest universities in continuou ...

. He then pursued a Ph.D. in Economics at

Stanford University Leland Stanford Junior University, commonly referred to as Stanford University, is a Private university, private research university in Stanford, California, United States. It was founded in 1885 by railroad magnate Leland Stanford (the eighth ...

though never completed it.

Work and style

Seth has published eight books of poetry and three 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. It was adapted into a BBC television drama miniseries in 2020. 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 10 stories about animals. He has written a travel book, ''From Heaven Lake: Travels through Sinkiang and Tibet'' (1983), an account of a journey through

Tibet Tibet (; ''Böd''; ), or Greater Tibet, is a region in the western part of East Asia, covering much of the Tibetan Plateau and spanning about . It is the homeland of the Tibetan people. Also resident on the plateau are other ethnic groups s ...

, China and

Nepal Nepal, officially the Federal Democratic Republic of Nepal, is a landlocked country in South Asia. It is mainly situated in the Himalayas, but also includes parts of the Indo-Gangetic Plain. It borders the Tibet Autonomous Region of China Ch ...

. He was also commissioned by the

English National Opera English National Opera (ENO) is a British opera company based in London, resident at the London Coliseum in St Martin's Lane. It is one of the two principal opera companies in London, along with The Royal Opera. ENO's productions are sung in E ...

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. A sequel to ''A Suitable Boy,'' '' A Suitable Girl'', was announced in 2009, but has yet to be published. 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".." 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'') with £500,000 for ''An Equal Music'' and £1.4 million for ''Two Lives''. He prepared an

acrostic An acrostic is a poem or other word composition in which the ''first'' letter (or syllable, or word) of each new line (or paragraph, or other recurring feature in the text) spells out a word, message or the alphabet. The term comes from the Fre ...

poem for his address at Gordon's 2005 memorial service. On 16 June 2024, publishing house Speaking Tiger announced the release of Seth's English translation of the sacred Hindu hymn '' Hanuman Chalisa'' - his first new work in over a decade.

Views

Seth commented on the Indian general elections held during the summer of 2024 saying that "we live in a better situation now than we lived a month ago". He made this comment less than a month after the elections were over and a new coalition government had been sworn in. Seth said "at least now there is somewhat of limitation on autocracy." On the recent sanction to prosecute the author Arundhati Roy, he noted that it was "craziness."

Personal life

Seth is

bisexual Bisexuality is romantic attraction, sexual attraction, or sexual behavior toward both males and females. It may also be defined as the attraction to more than one gender, to people of both the same and different gender, or the attraction t ...

. He was in a relationship with the violinist Philippe Honoré for ten years and dedicated his novel ''An Equal Music'' to him. In 2006, he became a leader of the campaign against Section 377 of the Indian Penal Code, a law against

homosexuality Homosexuality is romantic attraction, sexual attraction, or Human sexual activity, sexual behavior between people of the same sex or gender. As a sexual orientation, homosexuality is "an enduring pattern of emotional, romantic, and/or sexu ...

. When Section 377 was reinstated in 2013, Seth continued campaigning against the law. Seth divides his time between the

United Kingdom The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland, commonly known as the United Kingdom (UK) or Britain, is a country in Northwestern Europe, off the coast of European mainland, the continental mainland. It comprises England, Scotlan ...

, where he bought and renovated the former home of the Anglican poet

George Herbert George Herbert (3 April 1593 – 1 March 1633) was an English poet, orator, and priest of the Church of England. His poetry is associated with the writings of the metaphysical poets, and he is recognised as "one of the foremost British devotio ...

near

Salisbury Salisbury ( , ) is a city status in the United Kingdom, cathedral city and civil parish in Wiltshire, England with a population of 41,820, at the confluence of the rivers River Avon, Hampshire, Avon, River Nadder, Nadder and River Bourne, Wi ...

, and India, where he has a family home in

Noida Noida (), short for New Okhla Industrial Development Authority (ISO: ), is a city located in Gautam Buddha Nagar district of the Indian state of Uttar Pradesh. As per provisional reports of Census of India, the population of Noida in 2011 was ...

Uttar Pradesh Uttar Pradesh ( ; UP) is a States and union territories of India, state in North India, northern India. With over 241 million inhabitants, it is the List of states and union territories of India by population, most populated state in In ...

Works

Novels

*'' The Golden Gate'' (1986) *'' A Suitable Boy'' (1993) *'' An Equal Music'' (1999) *'' A Suitable Girl (planned)''

Poetry

*'' Mappings'' (1980) *'' The Tale Of Melon City'' (1981) *'' 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) *''Summer Requiem: A Book of Poems'' (2015) *''A Doctor's Journal Entry for August 6, 1945'' *'' Elephant and the Trapogan''

Translation

''Hanuman Chalisa''

Children's fiction

*''Arion and the Dolphin'' (1994) *''The Louse and the Mosquito'' (2020)

Non-fiction

* '' From Heaven Lake: Travels Through Sinkiang and Tibet'' (1983) * ''Two Lives'' (2005) * ''The Rivered Earth'' (2011)

Appearances in poetry anthologies

* ''The Oxford India Anthology of Twelve Modern Indian Poets''. Ed.

Arvind Krishna Mehrotra Arvind Krishna Mehrotra (born 1947) is an Indian poet, anthologist, literary critic and translator. Biography Arvind Krishna Mehrotra was born in Lahore in 1947. He has published six collections of poetry in English and two of translation ...

. New Delhi: Oxford University Press, 1992. * ''The Golden Treasure of Writers Workshop Poetry''. Ed. Rubana Huq. Calcutta: Writers Workshop, 2008.

Awards and honours

*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 – Shortlisted,

Irish Times International Fiction Prize ''The Irish Times'' is an Irish daily broadsheet newspaper and online digital publication. It was launched on 29 March 1859. The editor is Ruadhán Mac Cormaic. It is published every day except Sundays. ''The Irish Times'' is Ireland's leading n ...

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 –

Commander of the Order of the British Empire The Most Excellent Order of the British Empire is a British order of chivalry, rewarding valuable service in a wide range of useful activities. It comprises five classes of awards across both civil and military divisions, the most senior two o ...

*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 *2013 – NDTV's 25 Greatest Global Living Legends In India

References

Sources

* Chaudhuri, Amit (ed.). "Vikram Seth (born 1952)." ''The Vintage Book of Modern Indian Literature''. New York: Vintage, 2004:508–537.

External links

The Telegraph ("Love split delayed Suitable Boy sequel")British Council Bio
*
"Poetic License" by Cynthia Haven, "Stanford Magazine," May/June 1999''BOMB Magazine'' interview with Vikram Seth by Ameena MeerVikram Seth
at the Encyclopedia of Fantasy
Interview with Vikram Seth by Terry Gross on Fresh Air
{{DEFAULTSORT:Seth, Vikram 1952 births Writers from Kolkata Living people Alumni of Corpus Christi College, Oxford Bisexual poets Bisexual novelists The Doon School alumni Fellows of the Royal Society of Literature English-language poets from India Indian emigrants to the United Kingdom Indian male novelists Indian travel writers Indian bisexual men Indian LGBTQ poets Indian LGBTQ novelists Indian LGBTQ rights activists People educated at Tonbridge School The Doon School faculty Bisexual male writers Recipients of the Sahitya Akademi Award in English St. Xavier's Patna alumni Writers from Patna Indian male poets 20th-century Indian novelists 21st-century Indian novelists 20th-century Indian poets 21st-century Indian poets 20th-century Indian essayists 21st-century Indian essayists Indian political writers Indian children's writers Novelists from West Bengal Poets from West Bengal 20th-century Indian male writers 21st-century Indian male writers Commanders of the Order of the British Empire Stegner Fellows Recipients of Pravasi Bharatiya Samman