Writer, born in Mumbai, W India, of Muslim parents. He emigrated to Britain in 1965, and studied at Cambridge. He worked as an actor and an advertizing copywriter before becoming a writer, producing his first novel, Grimus, in 1975. He became widely known after the publication of his second novel, Midnight's Children (1981, Booker, James Tait Black prizes), a fantasia of Indian history in the 20th-c. This was followed in 1983 by Shame, set in Pakistan. The Satanic Verses (1988, Whitbread) caused worldwide controversy because of its treatment of Islam from a secular point of view, and in 1989 he was forced to go into hiding because of a sentence of death (fatwa) passed on him by Ayatollah Khomeini of Iran for blasphemy (officially lifted in 1998, but renewed by Ayatollah Khamenei in 2005). His later books include a novel for children, Haroun and the Sea of Stories (1990), a book of essays, Imaginary Homelands (1991), and the novels East, West (1994), The Moor's Last Sigh (1995, Whitbread), The Ground Beneath Her Feet (1999), Fury (2001), and Shalimar the Clown (2005). He was involved in the stage adaptation of Midnight's Children which premiered in London in 2003.
Salman Rushdie|
Salman Rushdie, giving a talk. |
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| Born: |
June 19, 1947 Bombay, India |
|---|---|
| Occupation(s): | Novelist |
| Genre(s): | Magic realism |
Salman Rushdie (born Ahmed Salman Rushdie, Urdu: أحمد سلمان رشدی, on June 19, 1947, in Bombay, India) is a British-Indian essayist and author of fiction, most of which is set on the Indian subcontinent.
Early life
Rushdie grew up in an average, Muslim family in Bombay (now Mumbai).
Career
His writing career began with Grimus, a tale, part-science fiction, which was generally ignored by the book-buying public and literary critics. After the success of Midnight's Children, Rushdie wrote a short novel, Shame, where he depicts the political turmoil in Pakistan by basing his characters on Zulfikar Ali Bhutto and General Muhammad Zia-ul-Haq.
Rushdie is highly influenced by (and, in turn, influencial in) modern literature. Midnight's Children borrows themes from Günter Grass's novel The Tin Drum, which Rushdie claims inspired him to begin writing. In his later works, Rushdie turned towards the Western world with The Moor's Last Sigh, exploring commercial and cultural links between India and the Iberian peninsula, and The Ground Beneath Her Feet, which presents an alternative history of modern rock music. Midnight's Children receives accolades for being Rushdie's best, most flowing and inspiring work, and many of Rushdie's post-1989 works have been critically acclaimed and commercially successful.
Rushdie has also long mentored - though quietly - younger Indian (and ethnic-Indian) writers, and can be said to have influenced an entire generation of 'Indo-Anglian' writers;
His newest book, Shalimar the Clown, released in September 2005, was a finalist for the Whitbread Book Awards.
Rushdie frequently speaks at the Cheltenham Festival of Literature, held annually in the United Kingdom.
Salman Rushdie is a Distinguished Supporter of the British Humanist Association.
On October 6, 2006, it was announced that Rushdie would be joining the Emory University faculty as Distinguished Writer in Residence for the next five years.
List of published works
Grimus (1975) Midnight's Children (1981) Shame (1983) The Jaguar Smile: A Nicaraguan Journey (1987) The Satanic Verses (1988) Haroun and the Sea of Stories (1990) Imaginary Homelands: Essays and Criticism, 1981–1991 (1992) East, West (1994) The Moor's Last Sigh (1995) The Ground Beneath Her Feet (1999) Fury (2001) Step Across This Line: Collected Nonfiction 1992–2002 (2002) The East is Blue (essay, 2004) Shalimar the Clown (2005)Awards
Awards that Rushdie has won include the following:
Booker Prize for Fiction James Tait Black Memorial Prize (Fiction) Arts Council Writers' Award English-Speaking Union Award "Booker of Bookers" or the best novel among the Booker Prize winners for Fiction Prix du Meilleur Livre Etranger Whitbread Novel Award Writers' Guild Award (Children's Book)The Satanic Verses controversy
The publication of The Satanic Verses in September 1988 caused immediate controversy in the Islamic world due to what was perceived as an irreverent depiction of the prophet Muhammad.
On 14 February 1989, a fatwa requiring Rushdie's execution was proclaimed on Radio Tehran by Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini, the leader of Iran, calling the book "blasphemous against Islam," and a bounty was offered for the death of Rushdie who was thus forced to live in hiding for years to come.
On 7 March 1989, the United Kingdom and Iran broke diplomatic relations over the Rushdie controversy.
On 24 September 1998, as a precondition to the restoration of diplomatic relations with Britain, Iran gave a public commitment that it would do nothing to harm Rushdie. In early 2005, Khomeini's fatwa against Rushdie was reaffirmed by Iran's spiritual leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, in a message to Muslim pilgrims making the annual pilgrimage to Mecca.
See The Satanic Verses for a timeline of the events.
October 2006 Straw-veil controversy
Salman Rushdie has stated that he supports the Leader of the House of Commons Jack Straw in his recent statements criticising the Islamic veil, saying that his three sisters would never wear it, that it was a limitation on women, and that it "was not to his liking."
Salman Rushdie in popular culture
Rushdie is a character in a 1990 film entitled International Gorillay (International Guerillas) produced in Pakistan. This film depicts an Islamic world in crisis due to the publication of Rushdie's Satanic Verses. However a month later, following a letter by Salman Rushdie himself, the ban was lifted. The Rutles 2 (2005): Rushdie appears several times throughout the film as one of the celebrity commentators on the career and musical output of The Rutles. On May 12, 2006, Rushdie was a guest host on The Charlie Rose Show, where he interviewed filmmaker Deepa Mehta about her 2005 film, Water. June, 2006 - Rushdie was interviewed for Bill Moyers PBS special Faith & Rushdie and Bono co-wrote the song "The Ground Beneath Her Feet" for the book of the same name;Video
Salman Rushdie Interview on radical Islam Full Interview and Clips of Bill Moyers Conversation with Rushdie in 2006 on PBS Man Booker Prize: Man Booker Prize for Fiction Winners|
1969: Newby 70: Rubens 71: Naipaul 72: Berger 73: Farrell 74: Gordimer, Middleton 75: Jhabvala 76: Storey 77: Scott 78: Murdoch 79: Fitzgerald 80: Golding 81: Rushdie 82: Keneally 83: Coetzee 84: Brookner 85: Hulme 86: Amis 87: Lively 88: Carey 89: Ishiguro 90: Byatt 91: Okri 92: Ondaatje, Unsworth 93: Doyle 94: Kelman 95: Barker 96: Swift 97: Roy 98: McEwan 99: Coetzee 2000: Atwood 01: Carey 02: Martel 03: Pierre 04: Hollinghurst 05: Banville 06: Desai |
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