Narayan, R. K. (1906-2001), was an Indian novelist and short-story writer who wrote in English. His novels show how the lives of ordinary Indian people reflect the greater concerns of national identity and historical change. Critics have praised Narayan for the tragicomic quality in his work and the gentle irony with which he treated his characters.
Rasipuram Krishnaswami Narayan was born on Oct. 10, 1906, in Madras. He was educated at the Collegiate High School in Mysore, where his father was headmaster, and at Maharaja’s College, Mysore. Narayan worked as a teacher and journalist before publishing his first novel, Swami and Friends (1935). The novel explores the concerns of people living in the imaginary village of Malgudi. Malgudi is also the setting for most of Narayan’s other novels, which include The English Teacher (1958), Waiting for the Mahatma (1958), The Man-Eater of Malgudi (1961), The Painter of Signs (1976), A Tiger for Malgudi (1983), and The Talkative Man (1986). Many of his short stories are collected in Under the Banyan Tree and Other Stories (1958) and Grandmother’s Tale and Other Stories (1993). Narayan’s nonfiction includes a memoir called My Days (1974) and A Writer’s Nightmare: Selected Essays 1958–1988 (1989). Narayan also composed shortened prose versions of two Indian epics, The Ramayana (1972) and The Mahabharata (1978). He died on May 13, 2001.
