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Nissim Ezekiel: the authorized biography

Additional information

By

R. Raj Rao

Publisher

‎ Vishwakarma Publication

Year Published

2016

Language

English

Description

Nissim Ezekiel is regarded as the father of modern Indian English poetry and the founder of the Bombay school of poetry. In this meticulously researched biography, R. Raj Rao traces the development of Ezekiel’s poetry and life against the background of India’s intellectual, cultural and political climate- from the 1930s to the end of the 20th century.

The book’s last section deals with Ezekiel’s increasing loneliness, inability to recognize old friends, and finally being diagnosed with Alzheimer’s disease in 1998. Drawing on previously unpublished letters, poems and essays, as well as discussions with the poet and interviews with friends and peers, Rao examines the desires and realities of Ezekiel’s life. Rao also provides detailed analyses of Ezekiel’s poems. Scholarly, exhaustive and provocative, this is the definitive biography of one of India’s foremost poets.

ISBN: 978-9385665493

R. Raj Rao is a writer, poet, and teacher of literature and one of India’s leading gay-rights activists. His 2003 novel, The Boyfriend, is one of the first gay novels to come from India. Rao was one of the first recipients of the newly established QuebecIndia awards. R. Raj Rao is the author of almost a dozen poetry, fiction, plays, biography, and criticism books.
His collection of poems, BomGay, was made into an uncensored short film by the late Riyad Wadia in 1996. Perhaps no other Indian writer’s personal, literary and academic life is steeped in queer culture as much as R. Raj Rao’s.
He is a former Professor and Head of the Department of English at the Savitribai Phule Pune University.