Salman Rushdie

Salman Rushdie Biography

Salman Rushdie is an Indian born British writer, whose second novel, Midnight's Children (1981) won the Booker Prize in 1981. Most of his works have been set in Indian background and his fourth novel, The Satanic Verses (1988) became a major controversy, provoking protests from Muslims all over the world. As a result death threats were made against him, including a fatwa. He was appointed Commandeur de l'Ordre des Arts et des Lettres of France in January 1999 and in 2007, Queen Elizabeth II knighted him for his services to literature. In 2008, he was ranked 13 among 50 great British writers since 1945, a survey conducted by Times. Since 2000, he resides in US and in 2012, 2012, he published a Memoir, about his life after the controversy of The Satanic Verses which was titled, Joseph Anton: A Memoir.

His father was an educated lawyer turned businessman and mother, a teacher. He was born in Mumbai to a Muslim family of Kashmiri descend. His schooling was done at Cathedral and John Connon School in Mumbai and Rugby School. His higher education was completed at King's College, University of Cambridge. He began his career as a copy writer for the advertising agency Ogilvy & Mather. It was during this time when he wrote his second novel, Midnight's Children and became a full-time writer after that. His first published work was Grimis (1975) which didn’t receive any attention.

In 2008 his Booker prize winning novel, Midnight’s children was awarded the ‘Best of the Bookers’ as the best novel to have received the prize during its first 25 and 40 years. Rushdie wrote Shame (1983), in which he depicts the political turmoil in Pakistan. In 1987 he published The Jaguar Smile and one year later, he published the controversial work.

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Updated: April 01, 2014