Vikram Seth

Vikram Seth is openly gay and was in a long term relationship with French musician/violinist Philippe Honore.

Vikram Seth was born to Prem Seth and his wife Leila Seth, on 20 June 1952, in Calcutta (now renamed Kolkata) located in the state of West Bengal in India. His father was an executive with Bata shoe company, while his mother was a judge. He was the eldest among his parents’ three children.

He studied at the St. Michael’s School, Patna, St. Xavier’s School, Patna and subsequently at The Doon School, Dehra Dun. Thereafter, he moved to England and completed his A-Levels from the Tonbridge School.

After graduating from high school, he studied Philosophy, Politics and Economics at Corpus Christi College, Oxford and graduated with a B. A. Degree in 1975. From 1975 to 1986, he pursued his Ph.D. at Stanford University, California, U.S.A.

During his time at Stanford University in the United States, he had been a Wallace Stegner Fellow in the field of creative writing and it was at this point that he penned the poems that were published in his first published work, ‘Mappings’, in 1980. The book did not get kind reviews from critics.

From 1980 to 1982, he was in China to his field research. He traveled extensively across China gathering material for a doctoral dissertation that he never wrote.. While in China, he studied classical Chinese poetry and language at Nanjing University.In 1983, his second book, 'From Heaven Lake', was published. It gave an account of his hitchhiking journey from China to India. The book was critically acclaimed and his work got noticed.In 1985, he came out with another collection of his poems, titled, ‘The Humble Administrator’s Garden’.

In 1986, his novel ‘The Golden Gate’ was published which was unique since the entire novel was written in verse and dealt with the lives of people in Silicon Valley. The novel was inspired by Aleksandr Pushkin’s work Eugene Onegin. The novel was successful and brought him plenty of accolades from the literary press.

In 1990, he published another book of poetry titled ‘All You Who Sleep Tonight’ and, in 1992, he came out with another collection of poems ‘Three Chinese Poets’.

In 1992, Seth wrote a children’s book titled ‘Beastly Tales from Hera and There’ in which he penned ten stories, all of which were about animals.

His novel ‘A Suitable Boy’ is without doubt his most important work in his career as a writer. It is one of the longest novels ever written in the English language and deals with the national political issues in the period leading up to the first post-Independence national election of India in 1952.