biography salman rushdie

Ahmed Salman Rushdie (born June 19, 1947) is an Indian-British novelist and essayist. He first achieved fame with his second novel, Midnight's Children (1981), which won the Booker Prize. Much of his early fiction is set at least partly on the Indian subcontinent. His style is often classified as magical realism, while a dominant theme of his work is the story of the many connections, disruptions and migrations between the Eastern and Western world.

His fourth novel, The Satanic Verses (1988), led to protests from Muslims in several countries, some of which were violent. Faced with death threats and a fatwa (religious edict) issued by Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini, then Supreme Leader of Iran, which called for him to be killed, he spent nearly a decade largely underground, appearing in public only sporadically. In June 2007, he was appointed a Knight Bachelor for "services to literature",^[1] which "thrilled and humbled" him.^[2] In 2007, he began a five-year term as Distinguished Writer in Residence at Emory University.^[3]

Contents [hide] 1 Personal life 2 Career 2.1 Major literary work 2.2 Other activities 3 The Satanic Verses, the fatwa and other critiques 3.1 The Archbishop of Canterbury's famous words 3.2 The failed assassination attempt and Hezbollah's comments 3.3 International Guerrillas 4 Knighthood 5 Religious and political beliefs 6 Bibliography 7 Awards 8 See also 9 References 10 External links 10.1 Interviews

[edit] Personal life

The only son of Anis Ahmed Rushdie, a Cambridge University-educated lawyer turned businessman, and Negin Butt, a teacher, Rushdie was born in Mumbai (then called Bombay), India.^[4][5] He was educated at Cathedral and John Connon School in Mumbai, Rugby School, and King's College, Cambridge, where he read history. He worked for two advertising agencies (Ogilvy & Mather and Ayer Barker) before becoming a full-time writer.^[6]

Rushdie has been married four times. His first wife was Clarissa Luard, to whom he was married from 1976 to 1987 and with whom he has a son, Zafar. His second wife was the American novelist Marianne Wiggins; they were married in 1988 and divorced in 1993. His third wife, from 1997 to 2004, was Elizabeth West; they have a son, Milan. In 2004, he got married to the Indian actress and model Padma Lakshmi, the host of the American reality-television show Top Chef and that marriage ended on July 2, 2007 with Rushdie indicating that it was her desire to end the marriage.

In 1999, Rushdie had an operation to correct a tendon condition that was making it increasingly difficult for him to open his eyes. "If I hadn't had an operation, in a couple of years from now I wouldn't have been able to open my eyes at all," he said.^[7]

Salman Rushdie having a discussion with Emory University students