The Writer and the World: Essays

Last updated
The Writer and the World
WriterAndWorld.jpg
First edition
Author V. S. Naipaul
CountryUnited Kingdom
LanguageEnglish
Genre Essays
Publisher Alfred A. Knopf
Publication date
13 August 2002
Media typePrint (Hardcover & Paperback)
Pages544 pp
ISBN 0-375-40739-1
OCLC 231964839
824/.914 21
LC Class PR9272.9.N32 W74 2002

The Writer and the World (2002) is a collection of essays and reportage, many previously published, spanning the 50-year career of Trinidad-born British writer V. S. Naipaul. The book contains some of Naipaul's most notable essays on post-colonial India, Trinidad, and Zaire. Originally published in the United States by Knopf, it was issued in paperback by Vintage in 2003. The book is edited and introduced by Pankaj Mishra.

V. S. Naipaul Trinidadian-British writer of Indo-Nepalese ancestry

Sir Vidiadhar Surajprasad Naipaul TC, most commonly known as V. S. Naipaul, and informally, Vidia Naipaul, was a Trinidadian-British writer of works of fiction and nonfiction in English. He is known for his comic early novels set in Trinidad, his bleaker later novels of the wider world, and his vigilant chronicles of life and travels. He wrote in prose that was widely admired, but his views sometimes aroused controversy. He published more than thirty books over fifty years.

Trinidad The larger of the two major islands which make up Trinidad and Tobago

Trinidad is the larger and more populous of the two major islands of Trinidad and Tobago. The island lies 11 km (6.8 mi) off the northeastern coast of Venezuela and sits on the continental shelf of South America. Though geographically part of the South American continent, from a socio-economic standpoint it is often referred to as the southernmost island in the Caribbean. With an area of 4,768 km2 (1,841 sq mi), it is also the fifth largest in the West Indies.

Zaire country in Africa now known as the Democratic Republic of the Congo

Zaire, officially the Republic of Zaire, was the name of a sovereign state between 1971 and 1997 in Central Africa that is now known as Democratic Republic of the Congo. The country was a one-party totalitarian dictatorship, run by Mobutu Sese Seko and his ruling Popular Movement of the Revolution party. Zaire was established following Mobutu's seizure of power in a military coup in 1965, following five years of political upheaval following independence known as the Congo Crisis. Zaire had a strongly centralist constitution, and foreign assets were nationalised. The period is sometimes referred to as the Second Congolese Republic.

Related Research Articles

Shiva Naipaul, born Shivadhar Srinivasa Naipaul in Port of Spain, Trinidad and Tobago, was a Trinidadian and British novelist and journalist.

<i>Miguel Street</i> book by V.S. Naipaul

Miguel Street is a collection of linked short stories by V. S. Naipaul set in wartime Trinidad and Tobago. The stories draw on the author's childhood memories of Port of Spain. The street of the title appears to be a fictionalized version of Luis Street where the author lived with his family in the 1940s. As well as writing about the Hindu community to which he belongs, Naipaul references black culture including a number of calypso lyrics which relate to the themes of the book.

<i>The Enigma of Arrival</i> book by V.S. Naipaul

The Enigma of Arrival: A Novel in Five Sections is a 1987 novel by Nobel laureate V. S. Naipaul.

Pankaj Mishra Indian writer

Pankaj Mishra is an Indian essayist and novelist. He is a recipient of the 2014 Windham–Campbell Prize for non-fiction.

Amitava Kumar American writer

Amitava Kumar is an Indian writer and journalist who is Professor of English on the Helen D. Lockwood Chair at Vassar College.

<i>Guerrillas</i> (novel) book by V. S. Naipaul

Guerrillas is a 1975 novel by V. S. Naipaul. The book is set on an unnamed, remote Caribbean island populated by a mix of ethnicities, but dominated by post-colonial British. Probably the island is modelled after Trinidad, Naipaul's birthplace.

Michael X Civil Rights activist

Michael X, born Michael de Freitas in Trinidad and Tobago, was a self-styled black revolutionary and civil rights activist in 1960s London. He was also known as Michael Abdul Malik and Abdul Malik. Convicted of murder in 1972, Michael X was executed by hanging in 1975 in Port of Spain's Royal Jail.

<i>The Loss of El Dorado</i> book by V.S. Naipaul

The Loss of El Dorado, by the Nobel Prize winner V. S. Naipaul, is a history book about Venezuela and Trinidad. It was published in 1969. The title refers to the El Dorado legend.

Mohammed Naseehu Ali author, originally from Ghana

Mohammed Naseehu Ali is a Ghanaian-born writer based in New York City.

Seepersad Naipaul Trinidad and Tobago journalist

Seepersad Naipaul was an Indo-Trinidadian writer. He was the father of V. S. Naipaul, Shiva Naipaul, Kamla Tewari, and Sati Bissoondath, and married into the influential Hindu Indo-Trinidadian Capildeo family.

<i>Inner Workings: Literary Essays, 2000–2005</i> book by John Maxwell Coetzee

Inner Workings is a series of 21 essays by the South African-born Nobel Prize winner J. M. Coetzee. Coetzee originally published sixteen of the essays in The New York Review of Books and four as introductions to texts.

<i>The Suffrage of Elvira</i> book by V.S. Naipaul

The Suffrage of Elvira is a comic novel by V. S. Naipaul set in colonial Trinidad. It was written in 1957, and was published in London the following year. It is a satire of the democratic process and the consequences of political change, published a few years before Trinidad and Tobago achieved independence in 1962.

<i>The Middle Passage</i> (book) book by V.S. Naipaul

The Middle Passage: Impressions of Five Societies - British, French and Dutch in the West Indies and South America is a 1962 book-length essay / travelogue by V. S. Naipaul. It is his first book-length work of non-fiction. It has the sub-title "The Caribbean Revisited".

<i>A Flag on the Island</i> book by V.S. Naipaul

A Flag on the Island is a collection of short stories written by V.S. Naipaul, and first published by André Deutsch in 1967. It includes the title novella, "A Flag on the Island," outtakes from previous books such as "The Enemy", from Miguel Street, and pieces published in periodicals in Britain or the United States. The book is dedicated to Diana Athill.

<i>A Way in the World</i> book by V.S. Naipaul

A Way in the World is a 1994 book by Nobel laureate V. S. Naipaul. Although it was marketed as a novel in America, A Way in the World which consists of linked narratives, is arguably something different.

Raymond R. Ramcharitar is a Trinidadian poet, playwright, fiction writer and media and cultural critic.

Kris Rampersad is a writer, researcher, lecturer, journalist, publisher, activist and advocate from Trinidad and Tobago.

Selwyn Cudjoe is a Trinidadian academic, scholar, historian, essayist and editor who is Professor of Africana Studies at Wellesley College. He was also the Margaret E. Deffenbaugh and LeRoy T. Carlson Professor in Comparative Literature and the Marion Butler McClean Professor in the History of Ideas at Wellesley. His particular expertise is Caribbean literature and Caribbean intellectual history, and he teaches courses on the African-American literary tradition, African literature, black women writers, and Caribbean literature.

Nicholas Laughlin is a writer and editor from Trinidad and Tobago. He has been editor of The Caribbean Review of Books since 2004, and also edits the arts and travel magazine Caribbean Beat. He is programme director of the NGC Bocas Lit Fest.

References

    <i>The New York Times</i> Daily broadsheet newspaper based in New York City

    The New York Times is an American newspaper based in New York City with worldwide influence and readership. Founded in 1851, the paper has won 125 Pulitzer Prizes, more than any other newspaper. The Times is ranked 17th in the world by circulation and 2nd in the U.S.

    <i>The New York Times Book Review</i> Weekly review of books by the New York Times

    The New York Times Book Review (NYTBR) is a weekly paper-magazine supplement to The New York Times in which current non-fiction and fiction books are reviewed. It is one of the most influential and widely read book review publications in the industry. The offices are located near Times Square in New York City.

    <i>The Weekly Standard</i> Former American conservative opinion magazine

    The Weekly Standard was an American opinion magazine published 48 times per year. Its founding publisher, News Corporation, debuted the title on September 18, 1995. Originally edited by founders Bill Kristol and Fred Barnes, the Standard had been described as a "redoubt of neoconservatism" and as "the neo-con bible." It was owned by MediaDC, a subsidiary of Clarity Media Group, itself a subsidiary of The Anschutz Corporation. On December 14, 2018, its owners announced that the magazine was ceasing publication, with the last issue published on December 17.