160 World Famous Litterateurs

Indeed, litterateurs have their nation and they reserve right to love their birthplace. But, there are also some transcendental litterateurs and artists who are known all over the world. The strength of such recognitions and fame is based on the merit of their works. The world has benefitted much from their precious contributions and there are plenty of litterateurs who have been recognised honored beyond borders.   

The context here is a book in Nepali, which contains short biographies of such brand of litterateurs for benefit of readers. The title of this under review book written by Yogendra Timilsina is “Biswoka Bikhyat Sahityakar” (The World Famous Litterateurs). 

Then, who are they and why? The question seems to be difficult because the list of favorite authors differ from person to person. But, what is sure about this book is it offers so many biographies of authors and this is not a small thing to read in a single book. 

In fact, the author holds the liberty to choose and he writes to serve readers accordingly. A small glance of this kind can be found even in the cover page of this book: An attractive portrait of Nepal’s Pioneer Poet Bhanubhakta along with the portraits of world famous playwright Shakespeare, Nobel Laureate poet of India Rabindra Nath Tagore and renowned novelist Jane Austen are printed in the blue background here.  Clearly, this presentation is meaningful for the Nepali readers who value litterateurs as personalities known beyond borders. 

Besides poet Bhanu Bhakta, this collection of short biographies has included Nepali litterateurs Motiram Bhatta and Laxmi Prasad Devkota, the Great poet of the nation, along with the introductions of other 157 renowned poets and authors of the world. The basis for presentation has been chosen from the Nepali alphabet of the litterateurs’ surnames, which means it starts right from the letter A (Austen, Jane, England) and ends with alphabet Ha (Hugo, Victor, France). In fact, these biographies are interesting because they are information-laden despite being short in length. 

The country-wise number of authors in this collection also needs to be mentioned here. In the modern literary development and creations, the position of England is outstanding both numerically and qualitatively. If we quote the fact from this book under review; out of the 160 authors of this collection, thirty-two of them are from England. It seems birth country of William Shakespeare has some special legacies to cheer up in the literary domain. 

Likewise, if we go on presenting such number for other prominent countries in this book, France and the USA stand second and third with twenty-four and fifteen authors respectively. Then the number of Russia comes with fourteen authors in this collection. Then, Italy appears with eight, Germany seven and Ireland with six authors in this book. 

As the most populous continent of the world, Asia also figures in this list, but with a few litterateurs only. The biographies of India’s Kalidas, Tulsidas, Premchand and Rabindra Nath Tagore can be found here. Similarly, we can also read a brief introduction about China’s prominent litterateurs Chin Chin-Mai and Lu Hsun in this collection. The other countries in Asia, whose litterateurs’ biographies figure here are from Japan, Iran and Bangaladesh. 

In fact, there can’t be literary publications in any language, which are beyond criticism. Therefore, these biographies, too, can be criticised for being too brief. But, to deliver 160 biographies in one publication, that too about the world famous authors, is a praiseworthy venture indeed. 

In addition to this fact, literary writings, especially like the book under review, can’t be limitless in its information collection and analysis. Therefore, the merit of being brief and availability of as many as 160 biographies of renowned authors and litterateurs of the world itself is the shining advantage of this book. 

In an interdependent world, exchange of ideas and desire to know about prominent authors of each other’s country is increasingly becoming a common culture in literature. Like elsewhere, this is true to the Nepali literature also.  So, the book entitled “Biswoka Bikhyat Sahityakar” can be a useful publication for the purpose of biography reading in Nepali language. 

Lastly, we need to present a few quotable sentences from this book of biography to show the merit of this collection: 

The famous novelist Jane Austin’s “Pride and Prejudice” originally had the title of “First Impression” and it could not be published due to rejection from publisher. But, same creation in the new title “Pride and Prejudice” later became world famous. 

The second can be from Sophocles, the Greek philosopher and author. His works offered an inspiration not only to Aristotle then in the distant past, but also to the many renowned authors like Sigmund Freud in the later times. William Shakespeare was the third among eighteen children of his parents. He fled to London with a group of drama artistes from the home town and earned fame as a poet and author. 

The book, thus, is interesting because it contains a kind of synopsis introduction of genius authors of the world in simple Nepali language.