Premchand: His Life and Times

Premchand (1880-1936) remains indisputably the greatest writer of fiction in Hindi and Urdu. The established literary merit of his work is complemented by his historical importance as the fountainhead of modern Hindi fiction. This biography, originally published in Hindi in 1962, has been widely acknowledged as the definitive life of Premchand. It is an indispensable sourcebook for anyone who wishes to understand the origins and milieu of Hindi and Urdu writing in the twentieth century. The Hindi edition won the Sahitya Akademy award in 1963.