Nissim Ezekiel

Nissim Ezekiel
Nissim Ezekiel
Born 14 December 1924 Mumbai, British India 9 January 2004 (aged79) [1] Mumbai, India

Died

Occupation Poet, playwright, art critic Nationality Indian Period 19522004

Nissim Ezekiel (Marathi: ; 14 December 1924 9 January 2004) was an Indian Jewish poet, playwright, editor and art-critic. He was a foundational figure in postcolonial India's literary history, specifically for Indian writing in English. He was awarded the Sahitya Akademi Award in 1983 for his Poetry collection, "Latter-Day Psalms", by the Sahitya Akademi, India's National Academy of Letters.[2]

Early life
Ezekiel was born on 16 December 1924 in Mumbai (Maharashtra). His father, Moses Ezekiel, was a professor of botany at Wilson College, and his mother was principal of her own school. The Ezekiels belonged to Mumbai's Marathi-speaking Jewish community, known as the 'Bene Israel'.[citation needed]. He was maternal uncle to Nandu Bhende. In 1947, Ezekiel earned a BA in Literature from Wilson College, Mumbai, University of Mumbai. In 1947-48, he taught English literature and published literary articles. After dabbling in radical politics for a while, he sailed to England in November 1948. He studied philosophy at Birkbeck College, London. After three and a half years stay, Ezekiel worked his way home as a deck-scrubber aboard a ship carrying arms to Indochina.[citation needed]

Career
Ezekiel's first book, The Bad Day, appeared in 1952. He published another volume of poems, The Deadly Man in 1960. After working as an advertising copywriter and general manager of a picture frame company (195459), he co-founded the literary monthly Jumpo, in 1961. He became art critic of The Names of India (196466) and edited Poetry India (196667). From 1961 to 1972, he headed the English department of Mithibai College, Bombay. The Exact Name, his fifth book of poetry was published in 1965. During this period he held short-term tenure as visiting professor at University of Leeds (1964) and University of Pondicherry (1967). In 1967, while in America, he experimented with LSD. In 1969, Writers Workshop, Kozhikode published his The Damn Plays. A year later, he presented an art series of ten programmes for Indian television. In 1976, he translated Jawarharlal Nehru poetry from English to Marathi, in collaboration with Vrinda Nabar, and co-edited a fiction and poetry anthology. His poem The Night Of The Scorpion is used as study material in Indian and Columbian schools. Ezekiel also penned poems in Indian English like the one based on instruction boards in his favourite Irani caf. His poems are used in NCERT and ICSE English textbooks. He got Padmashri award in 1988 and the Sahitya akademi award cultural award in 1983.

Nissim Ezekiel

Books by
Poetry 1952: Time To Change[3] 1953: Sixty Poems[3] 1956: The Discovery of India[3] 1959: The Third[3] 1960: The Unfinished Man[3] 1965: The Exact Name[3] 1974: Snakeskin and Other Poems, translations of the Marathi poet Indira Sant[3] 1976: Hymns in Darkness[3] 1982: Latter-Day Psalms[3] 1989: Collected Poems 1952-88 OUP[3]

Other 1969: The Three Plays

Editor
1965: An Emerson Readers[3] 1969: A Joseph King Reader[3] 1990: Another India, anthology of fiction and poetry[3]

Poems
Night of the Scorpion The Doctor Case Study Poster Prayers The Traitor Poet, Lover, Birdwatcher Latter-day Psalms The Railway Clerk Goodbye Party For Miss Pushpa T.S. Enterprise In India In the Theatre The Couple A Time to Change Island For Elkana The Professor

Nissim Ezekiel

References
[1] http:/ / www. profkvdominic. com/ ?page_id=384 [3] (http:/ / findarticles. com/ p/ articles/ mi_qn4158/ is_20040326/ ai_n12775727) Kumar, Jai, "Obituary: Nissim Ezekiel", The Independent, March 26, 2004, accessed via Find Articles/LookSmart Ltd. Web site, accessed October 16, 2007

Further reading
R. Raj Rao, Nissim Ezekiel: The Authorized Biography (Viking, 2000)

External links
Obituary in The Independent of London (http://findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_qn4158/is_20040326/ ai_n12775727)

Article Sources and Contributors

Article Sources and Contributors

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