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Dom Moraes

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Not to be confused withFrank Moraes.

Dom Moraes
BornDominic Francis Moraes
(1938-07-19)19 July 1938
Bombay,Bombay Province,British India
Died2 June 2004(2004-06-02)(aged 65)
Mumbai,Maharashtra,India
OccupationPoet, novelist, columnist, director
LanguageEnglish
EducationJesus College, Oxford
Notable worksA Beginning(1958)
Poems(1960)
John Nobody(1965)
My Son's Father(1968)
Serendip(1990)
Notable awardsHawthornden Prize(1958)
Sahitya Akademi Award for English(1994)
SpouseHenrietta Moraes(m. 1961)
Judith Moraes
​
​
(m.1969;sep.1992)​
PartnerSarayu Srivatsa[1]
Children1[1]
Relatives

Dominic Francis Moraes(19 July 1938 – 2 June 2004)[2]was an Indian writer and poet who published nearly 30 books in English. He is widely seen as a foundational figure inIndian English literature.His poems are a meaningful and substantial contribution to Indian andWorld literature.[3][4]

Early life[edit]

Dom Moraes[5]was born inBombay(nowMumbai) to Beryl andFrank Moraes,former editor ofThe Times of Indiaand laterThe Indian Express.He had a tormented relationship with his mother Beryl, who had been confined to a mental asylum since his childhood.[6]His aunt was the historianTeresa Albuquerque.[7]He attended the city'sSt. Mary's School,and then left for England to enrol atJesus College, Oxford.[8]

Moraes spent eight years in Britain (in London andOxford), New York City, Hong Kong,DelhiandBombay.[9]

Career[edit]

David Archer published Moraes' first collection of poems,A Beginning,in 1957. When he was 19, still an undergraduate, he became the first Indian to win the Hawthornden Prize and was presented with £100 and a silver medal byLord David Cecilat theArts Council of Britainon 10 July 1958.[10]

He edited magazines in London, Hong Kong and New York. He became the editor ofThe Asia Magazinein 1971. He scripted and partially directed over 20 television documentaries for theBBCand ITV. He was a war correspondent inAlgeria,IsraelandVietnam.In 1976 he joined theUnited Nations.[11]

Moraes conducted one of the first interviews of theDalai Lamaafter the Tibetan spiritual leader fled to India in 1959. The Dalai Lama was then 23 and Moraes, 20.[12]

Later life and death[edit]

In 1961–62 he was one of the very few public Indian figures to strongly criticize the Indian Army takeover of Goa, land of his forefathers –Daman and Diufrom Portuguese India. He tore up his Indian passport on TV in protest.[13]He was later allowed back in the country.[14]

When theGujarat riotserupted in 2002, with their heavy toll of Muslim dead, Moraes left for Ahmedabad the minute the news came through, saying that since he was a Catholic, Muslims would not see him as an enemy. Even though he was physically in considerable pain by then, he was one of the first on the scene.[15]

Memorial to Dom Moraes

Moraes ended his writing career, writing books in collaboration with Sarayu Srivatsa.[16][17]

He had a lifelong battle with alcoholism. Moraes suffered from cancer, but refused treatment and died from a heart attack inBandra,Mumbai. He was buried in the city's Sewri Cemetery.[18]Many of Dom's old friends and publishers attended the memorial service in Odcombe. A headstone in yellow Jaisalmer stone lies embedded in the front lawn of theChurch of St Peter and St Paulto mark the service.[citation needed]

Personal life[edit]

In 1956, aged 18, he was courted byAudrey Wendy Abbottwho later changed her name to Henrietta. They married in 1961. He left her, according to his close friends in London, but did not divorce her.[citation needed]He had a son, Francis Moraes, with his second wifeJudith,whom he divorced, and returned to India in 1968. In 1969, he married the Indian actressLeela Naidu.They were treated as a star couple, and known across the world for over two decades. Their marriage ended in a separation.[19]For the last 13 years of his life he lived with Sarayu Srivatsa, with whom he co-authored two books.[1]

Bibliography[edit]

  • 1951:Green is the Grass,a book ofcricketessays[20]
  • 1957:A Beginning,his first book of poems (winner of theHawthornden Prizein 1958)
  • 1960:Poems,his second book of poems
  • 1960:Gone Away: An Indian Journey,memoir
  • 1965:John Nobody,his third book of poems
  • 1967:Beldam & Others,a pamphlet of verse
  • 1968:My Son's Father,autobiography
  • 1983:Absences,book of poems
  • 1987:Collected Poems: 1957-1987(Penguin)
  • 1990:Serendip(winner of the 1994Sahitya Akademi Award)
  • 1992:Out of God's Oven: Travels in a Fractured Land,co-authored with Sarayu Srivatsa[21]
  • 1994:Never at Home,memoir(Penguin)[22]
  • 2003:The Long Strider,co-authored with Sarayu Srivatsa
  • Heiress to Destiny,biography ofIndira Gandhi
  • 2012:Selected Poemsedited byRanjit Hoskote(Penguin)[23]

Selections in poetry anthologies[edit]

Interviews[edit]

See also[edit]

References[edit]

  1. ^abcBrownjohn, Alan (4 June 2004)."Obituary: Dom Moraes".The Guardian.London.
  2. ^"Encyclopaedia Britannica, Dom Moraes".britannica.Retrieved3 September2018.
  3. ^"Everyone knows of Dom Moraes, but many more readers should know his poetry".scroll.in.19 July 2017.Retrieved3 September2018.
  4. ^"Dom Moraes".thetimes.co.uk.Retrieved3 September2018.
  5. ^"Dom Moraes".independent.co.uk.4 June 2004.Retrieved3 September2018.
  6. ^"The Poet Who Remained a Boy - Dom Moraes Early Life".The Hindu.13 July 2013.
  7. ^Noronha, Frederick (12 June 2017)."Teresa Albuquerque, Historian of Colonial Bombay and the Goan Diaspora, is No More".The Wire.Retrieved13 June2017.
  8. ^"Dom Moraes".modernpoetryintranslation.Archived fromthe originalon 2 May 2019.Retrieved3 September2018.
  9. ^Doherty, Francis (1963). "Poetic Parable: A Note on the Poetry of Dom Moraes".Studies: An Irish Quarterly Review.52(206). jstor.org: 205–211.JSTOR30088567.
  10. ^"Hawthornden prize".The Hindu.12 July 1958.Retrieved7 July2018.
  11. ^"Dom Moraes".telegraph.co.uk.4 June 2004.Retrieved3 September2018.
  12. ^"A Requiem To Domsky".outlookindia.Retrieved3 September2018.
  13. ^"SAHGAL'S PROTEST STEMS FROM HATRED FOR MODI".dailypioneer.Retrieved3 September2018.
  14. ^"Return as a Stranger Dom Moraes and the Ambiguity of Homecoming".Return of Stranger Dom Moraes.brill. January 2014. pp. 313–320.doi:10.1163/9789401211086_021.ISBN978-94-012-1108-6.Retrieved3 September2018.
  15. ^Brownjohn, Alan (4 June 2004)."Brilliant young writer, whose star, lauded by bohemian London, dimmed in later life".The Guardian.theguardian.Retrieved3 September2018.
  16. ^"The stranger who found belonging at last".The Hindu.Archived fromthe originalon 30 September 2007.Retrieved3 September2018.
  17. ^Bhattacharjee, Sankarlal (2004). "Death and Departure: Meeting Dom Moraes".Indian Literature.48(4 (222)). jstor.org: 7–15.JSTOR23341511.
  18. ^Singh, Khushwant (13 October 2007)."Requiem to Dom Moraes".The Tribune.
  19. ^"Leela Naidu personified grace and beauty".The Times of India.29 July 2009.
  20. ^James D. Coldham, "Book Reviews",The Cricketer,31 May 1952, p. 181.
  21. ^"Sarayu Srivatsa on Dom Moraes and their Travelogue Out of God's Oven".indianculturalforum.in.18 September 2017.Retrieved3 September2018.
  22. ^"Never at Home: A breathless account of Dom Moraes' globe-trotting days".indiatoday.in.22 May 2013.Retrieved16 July2019.
  23. ^"Dom Moraes ( Selected Poems )".exoticindiaart.Retrieved3 September2018.
  24. ^Country House Library
  25. ^Ash Rare Books
  26. ^"The Oxford India Anthology of Twelve Modern Indian Poets".cse.iitk.ac.in.Retrieved23 August2018.
  27. ^"Book review: 'Twelve Modern Indian Poets' by Arvind Krishna Mehrotra".indiatoday.in.3 January 2013.Retrieved23 August2018.

External links[edit]

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