User:Cfgately/David G. Rubin

David G. Rubin (March 24, 1924 – February 2, 2008) was a novelist, translator, scholar and one of the foremost authorities on the literature and languages of India.

Biography

David G. Rubin was born March 27, 1924 in Willimantic, Connecticut. David grew up speaking English and French. A talented musician, he considered careers as a performer or music critic, but instead turned his attention to the study of language and literature.

Ruben served in Army Intelligence from 1943 to 1946 during World War II. He was stationed in the Azores working as a crytographer, helping to decode secret messages from Nazi U-boats for the Allied forces.

After the war he attended the University of Connecticut, where he received a bachelor's degree, then went on to obtain a master's degree from Brown and a PhD in English and Comparative Literature from Columbia University.

In 1960, Rubin traveled to India on a Fulbright Fellowship. Falling in love with the life and literature of the subcontinent, he applied his uncanny linguistic skills to learning Hindi, Urdu, Nepali, and ultimately Sanskrit, as well as to writing his series of novels about 'passionate pilgrims' in India.

His first novel The Greater Darkness, A Novel of India (1963) won the Duff Cooper award as the best first novel published in England that year. It was followed in 1965 by Cassio and the Life Divine, and Enough of This Lovemaking: Two Short Novels, in 1970.

Though he continued to write fiction, notably short stories, he then turned his attention to translating works of Indian literature. In 1969 Premchand's Selected Stories by the great Urdu writer appeared, and this was followed in 1976 by A Season on Earth, Selected Poems of Nirala and in 1980 by Nepali Visions, Nepali Dreams, a selection of Nepali poetry. Iin 1986 he published his definitive study of the Anglo-Indian novel, After the Raj; British Novels of India since 1947.

He also had pieces featured in scholarly journals such as The Music Review, South-West Review, Prism 2, Transatlantic Review, Modern Fiction Studies, Virginia Quarterly Review, and Sarah Lawrence Journal.

In 1964, Rubin joined the literature faculty at Sarah Lawrence College where he taught for 20 years and retired as faculty emeritus. After his retirement from Sarah Lawrence, he continued teaching Hindi in Columbia's Department of Middle East Languages and Cultures, South Asian Institute.

He died on February 2, 2008 from a stroke at Roosevelt Hospital. His papers are located at the Howard Gotlieb Archival Research Center at Boston University.

Bibliography

• The Greater Darkness, A Novel of India, 1963
• Cassio and the Life Divine, 1965
• Enough of This Lovemaking: Two Short Novels, 1970
• Premchand's Selected Stories by the Great Urdu Writer, 1969 (Translation)
• A Season on Earth, Selected Poems of Nirala, 1976 (Translation)
• Nepali Visions, Nepali Dreams: A Selection of Nepali Poetry, 1980 (Translation)
• After the Raj; British Novels of India Since 1947, 1986

External links

• Howard Gotlieb Archival Research Center