Seepersad Naipaul

Some Lesser Known Facts About Seepersad Naipaul

• He was born and brought up in a poor Indian family in rural Trinidad.

• Since childhood Seepersad Naipaul had educated himself.

• He was young when he was sent to live with his extended relatives where he would help rear goats and cows in the mornings, and then walk to school without shoes.

• He was only allowed to study his elementary school by his family. Later he taught himself to read and write and aspired to be a writer.

• Although he was not well educated, he became the central correspondent for the Trinidad Guardian, which is the oldest daily newspaper in Trinidad and Seepersad was the first Indo-Trinidadian journalist.

• In 1943, he self-published his first book Gurudeva and Other Indian Tales which is a collection of linked comic short stories. Only 100 copies of the pamphlet were published. It became highly recognised in 1976, after V. S. Naipaul published a re-edited version of the book, which is now known as The Adventures of Gurudeva and other stories, which was published by Andre Deutsch.

• After gaining enough experience in writing about the journalism of Trinidad and about Indian politics. He started working as a social worker and wrote about the lives of rural Indian Trinidadians, which was unknown to the rest of the world.

• Savi Naipaul Akal, Seepersad’s daughter represented him as a devoted family man. who prioritized his children’s education irrespective of their gender.