Vrindavanlal Verma (An Old & Rare Book)

Vrindavanlal Verma (1889-1969) was a novelist, short story writer and playwright and his contribution to Hindi literature is of a pioneering nature. He was perhaps the first Hindi novelist to insist on the authenticity of historical events and life depicted in a novel. He wrote in the language of the people and made effective use of the folk idiom of Bundelkhand. Three decades before the an-chalik movement gained ground in Hindi, Vrindavanlal Verma wove his novels around Bundelkhand and immortalised in them the historical and cultural identity of the region.

The Agra University conferred D. Litt. (honoris causa) on him in 1958 and the President of India decorated him with Padma-bhushan in 1965.

Author of over thirty novels, twenty plays and ten collections of short stories, Vrindavanlal Verma is most remembered for his historical novels. This monograph is a modest attempt to present him as a maker of modern Hindi literature, mainly to the non-Hindi readers.

Rajeev Saxena (b. November 30, 1923, at Jhansi, UP.) is a well known Hindi poet and critic. Also a journalist, he has been associated with a number of periodicals during the last four decades.

He has published one novel and some one-act plays, besides many translations of literary classics from China, Soviet Union and Czechoslovakia. He was honoured with the Soviet Land Nehru Award in 1979.

Rajeev Saxena knew Vrindavanlal Verma closely for many years and writes this monograph with critical acumen combined with an insight born of personal knowledge.