Maupassant And a Cigar: An Intimate Biography of Pudumaipithan

The life of a literary giant, equally lauded and criticized…

Pudumaipithan (1906-1948) is widely regarded as one of the greatest writers of short stories in Tamil, and as the harbinger of literary modernism in the language. He is remembered for having revolutionized Tamil prose into a medium through which he approached the lives and emotions of subaltern urban and rural characters, with a distinctly modern sensibility.

This biography, written immediately after Pudumaipithan’s death, by someone very close to him, remains the most authentic biography of the writer till date. Translated into vivid, conversational English by Peer Mohamed Azees, this quirkily structured biography captures Pudumaipithan’s brilliance as well as his steadfast unwillingness, indeed inability, to compromise, his endearing addiction to betel leaves, as well as his rigorous skepticism towards every shade of ideological Hypocrisy.

About the Author: Tho Mu Si Ragunathan (1923–2001) was a Tamil writer, translator, journalist and literary critic. His first short story appeared in Prasanda Vikatan in 1941. His first novella Puyal was published in 1945, and his literary criticism Ilakkiya Vimarsanam in 1948. Panjum Pasiyum (Cotton and Hunger) was published in 1951. It was translated into Czech and sold 50,000 copies within weeks. During 1954–56, he ran the progressive literary monthly Shanthi. In the mid-1960s he joined Soviet Land Publications, where he translated many Russian works into Tamil. He received the Soviet Land Nehru Award for Thai (1965) and for Lenin Kavithaanjali (1970). He was awarded the Sahitya Akademi Award (1983) for his literary criticism Bharathi: Kalamum Karuthum.