Samuel Beckett | Guy Portman's Blog

6 Writers Who Went Into Hiding

Sep 04 2015

This week sees the latest instalment in my famous author series. Prior to researching this subject matter I was only aware of 2 writers who had gone into hiding, but I soon discovered there were/are many more.

Here are 6 writers who went into hiding:

Samuel Beckett (April 13th 1906 – December 22nd 1989)

Irish born avant-garde novelist, playwright and poet Samuel Beckett is regarded as one of the most influential writers of the 20th Century. His accolades include having won the Nobel Prize in Literature in 1969. Beckett spent most of his adult life in Paris. When Germany occupied Paris in 1940, Beckett joined the French Resistance. In 1942 Beckett’s unit was betrayed. He fled to the village of Roussillon, where he continued assisting the resistance effort, as well as working on his novel Watt.

Salman Rushdie (Born: June 19th 1947)

Salman Rushdie’s second novel, Midnight’s Children, won the Booker Prize in 1981. His fourth book, The Satanic Verses (1988), caused controversy from the outset. The title of the book was deemed offensive by many Muslims, as it refers to a number of allegedly pagan verses, temporarily included in the Qur’an and later removed. When the Supreme Leader of Iran, The Ayatollah Khomeini, issued a Fatwa against the author in January 1989, Rushdie was rushed into the protective custody of Special Branch.

Anne Frank
(June 12th 1929 – February/March 1945)

Anne Frank was a member of a Jewish family, who spent 2 years hiding in concealed rooms behind a bookcase in a building in Amsterdam. During this period Anne kept a diary chronicling her life. When her family was betrayed Anne Frank and her sister Margot were sent to the Bergen-Belsen concentration camp, where they died, most likely as a result of typhus. However, her wartime diary, The Diary of a Young Girl, survived. It was first published in the UK and US in 1952.

Hamed Abdel-Samad (Born: February 1st 1972)

Hamed Abdel-Samad is a German-Egyptian historian, political scientist and author, who in his youth was a member of the Muslim Brotherhood. He later became an atheist. His autobiography, Mein Abschied vom Himmel (My Farewell from Heaven), provoked anger in his home country of Egypt. When a fatwa was issued against the author he was placed under police protection. As a result of continued death threats, Abdel-Samad has spent time in hiding. Not surprisingly he does not list a location on his Twitter profile @hamed_samad.

Juan Tomás Avila Laurel (Born: 1966)

Juan Tomás Avila Laurel is an Equatorial-Guinean novelist, short story writer and poet. Laurel’s writing has been highly critical of his country’s political and economic landscape. This has not endeared him to all in Equatorial Guinea, one of the World’s most repressive regimes. His disgust with his country’s government led him to move to Spain, but after his asylum application was refused he returned home. Concern over potential persecution from Equatorial Guinea’s security forces have forced Avila Laurel to go into hiding.

Taslima Nasreen (Born: 25 August 1962)

Bangladeshi author and poet Taslima Nasreen became a controversial figure in her home country due to her feminist views and criticism of religion. In 1993 a fatwa was issued against her. The following year she fled to West Bengal. 8 years later concerns for her safety culminated in Nasreen going into hiding in New Delhi. In 2015 death threats from Islamic extremists resulted in the author moving to the US. She has not been able to return to Bangladesh, or her adopted home of West Bengal.

5 Famous Bilingual Authors

Oct 10 2014

I never cease to be impressed by authors who write in more than one language. This week’s blog post is dedicated to 5 such authors.

Samuel Beckett

(13th April 1906 – 22nd December 1989)

Irish born avant-garde novelist, playwright and poet Samuel Beckett is regarded as one of the most influential writers of the 20th Century. His accolades include having won the Nobel Prize in Literature in 1969. Beckett was a skilled linguist, who studied English, French and Italian at Trinity College, Dublin, and went on to live most of his adult life in Paris.

After the War Beckett published mostly in French, including arguably his most famous work, En attendant Godot (1953). With the exception of Molloy, Beckett translated all of his works from French to English himself.

Joseph Conrad

(3rd December 1857 – 3rd August 1924)

Remembered as one of the greatest English language novelists of all time, the Polish born Conrad did not learn to speak English until he was in his twenties. Though Conrad never completed his schooling he was also well versed in German, Greek and Latin, in addition to speaking fluent French.

Conrad’s career in the merchant navy led to him moving to England, where he embarked on his writing career. In 1899 his seminal work Hearts of Darkness was published, a book that is regarded as one of the most important works of the 20th Century.

Vladimir Nabokov

(22nd April 1899 – 2nd July 1977)

The Saint Petersburg born Nabokov was brought up speaking French and English, in addition to his native Russian. Nabokov’s first nine novels were written in Russian, but it is his later English language efforts that he is best remembered for. His most famous work, Lolita, is considered to be one of the greatest and most controversial novels ever written. Lolita is one of Modern Library’s 100 best novels of the 20th Century. In 1967, twelve years after he had written Lolita, Nabokov translated it into Russian.

Click here to read my review of Lolita.

Jack Kerouac

(12th March 1922 – 21st October 1969)

American novelist and poet Jack Kerouac primarily wrote autobiographical novels in a spontaneous prose style. His most famous book, On the Road, set against a backdrop of poetry, jazz and drug use, was the defining work of the postwar Beat Generation.

It has only recently been discovered that the young Kerouac initially began writing in Quebecois French, the language he has been brought up speaking by his French-Canadian parents. Kerouac went on to write poetry in French, in addition to two novels, which remain unpublished.

Click on the links to read my reviews of On the Road and Maggie Cassidy.

Nancy Huston

(Born: 16th September 1953)

Canadian born essayist and novelist Nancy Huston is a prolific author, who has published over 45 books comprising both fiction and non-fiction. Huston, who writes primarily in French, translates her own works into English. Her most famous book to date, Les variations Goldberg (1981), won the Prix Contrepoint prize. Huston is also more than capable of writing in English. Her critically acclaimed novel Plainsong (1993) was initially written in English and then self-translated into French.

Please note that I am currently overseas, and have only limited internet access. As a result it may take me a while to reply to any comments.

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6 Writers Who Went Into Hiding

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5 Famous Bilingual Authors

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