>KyloRen3 at 05:06, 24 June 2021

2021-06-24T05:06:26Z

New page

{{short description|Indian English-language writer and poet}}
{{distinguish|Frank Moraes}}

{{Use dmy dates|date=November 2015}}
{{Use Indian English|date=November 2015}}
{{Infobox writer
| name = Dom Moraes
| image = Dom Moraes.jpg
| birth_name = Dominic Francis Moraes
| birth_date = {{birth date|df=y|1938|07|19}}
| birth_place = [[Bombay]], [[Bombay Presidency]], [[British India]]
| death_date = {{death date and age|df=y|2004|06|02|1938|07|19}}
| death_place = [[Bandra]], [[Maharashtra]], [[India]]
| language =[[English language|English]]
| education = [[Jesus College, Oxford]]
| occupation = poet, novelist, columnist, director
| relations = [[Frank Moraes]] (father) Beryl Moraes (mother) [[Teresa Albuquerque]] (aunt)
| spouse = [[Henrietta Moraes]] (m. 1961) [[Jude Moraes|Judith Moraes]] [[Leela Naidu]] (1969–1992; separated)
| partner = Sarayu Srivatsa<ref name="Obituary">{{cite news| url=https://www.theguardian.com/news/2004/jun/04/guardianobituaries.india| title= Obituary: Dom Moraes| date=4 June 2004| newspaper=[[The Guardian]]| location=London| first=Alan| last=Brownjohn}}</ref>
| children = Francis Moraes<ref name="Obituary"/>
| notableworks = ''[[A Beginning (book)|A Beginning]]'' (1958) ''Poems'' (1960) ''John Nobody'' (1965) ''[[My Son's Father]]'' (1968) ''[[Serendip (book)|Serendip]]'' (1990)
| awards = [[Hawthornden Prize]] (1958) [[List of Sahitya Akademi Award winners for English|Sahitya Akademi Award for English]] (1994)
}}
'''Dominic Francis Moraes''' (19 July 1938 – 2 June 2004)<ref>{{cite web |title=Encyclopaedia Britannica , Dom Moraes |url=https://www.britannica.com/biography/Dom-Moraes |website=britannica.com |publisher=britannica.com |access-date=3 September 2018}}</ref> was an Indian writer and poet who published nearly 30 books in English language. He is widely seen as a foundational figure in [[Indian English literature]]. His poems are a meaningful and substantial contribution to Indian and [[World literature]].<ref>{{cite web |title=Everyone knows of Dom Moraes, but many more readers should know his poetry |url=https://scroll.in/article/844271/everyone-knows-of-dom-moraes-but-many-more-readers-should-know-his-poetry |website=scroll.in |publisher=scroll.in |access-date=3 September 2018}}</ref><ref>{{cite web |title=Dom Moraes |url=https://www.thetimes.co.uk/article/dom-moraes-89rltctn3md |website=thetimes.co.uk |publisher=thetimes.co.uk |access-date=3 September 2018}}</ref>

==Early life==
Dom Moraes<ref>{{cite web |title=Dom Moraes |url=https://www.independent.co.uk/news/obituaries/dom-moraes-730527.html |website=independent.co.uk |publisher=independent.co.uk |access-date=3 September 2018}}</ref> was born in [[Bombay]] (now [[Mumbai]]) to Beryl and [[Frank Moraes]], former editor of ''[[The Times of India]]'' and later ''[[The Indian Express]]''. He had a tormented relationship with his mother Beryl, who had been confined to a mental asylum since his childhood.<ref>{{ cite news|title=The Poet Who Remained a Boy - Dom Moraes Early Life|url= https://www.thehindu.com/features/magazine/the-poet-who-remained-a-boy/article4912158.ece|newspaper=[[The Hindu]]|date= 13 July 2013 }}</ref> His aunt was the historian [[Teresa Albuquerque]].<ref name=wire>{{cite news|newspaper=The Wire|url=https://thewire.in/146812/teresa-albuquerque-historian-colonial-bombay-goan-diaspora-no/|title=Teresa Albuquerque, Historian of Colonial Bombay and the Goan Diaspora, is No More|last=Noronha|first=Frederick|date=12 June 2017|access-date=13 June 2017}}</ref> He attended the city's [[St. Mary's School, Mumbai|St. Mary's School]], and then left for England to enrol at [[Jesus College, Oxford]].<ref>{{cite web |title=Dom Moraes |url=http://modernpoetryintranslation.com/poet/dom-moraes/ |website=modernpoetryintranslation.com |publisher=modernpoetryintranslation.com |access-date=3 September 2018}}</ref>

Moraes spent eight years in Britain (in London and [[Oxford]]), New York City, Hong Kong, [[Delhi]] and [[Bombay]] (now Mumbai).<ref>{{cite journal |title=Poetic Parable: A Note on the Poetry of Dom Moraes |journal=Studies: An Irish Quarterly Review |volume=52 |issue=206 |pages=205–211 |publisher=jstor.org |jstor=30088567 |last1=Doherty |first1=Francis |year=1963 }}</ref>

==Career==
David Archer published his 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 by [[Lord David Cecil]] at the [[Arts Council of Great Britain|Arts Council of Britain]] on 10 July 1958.<ref>{{cite news |title=Hawthornden prize |url=https://www.thehindu.com/todays-paper/tp-miscellaneous/dated-July-12-1958-Hawthornden-prize/article15259265.ece |access-date=7 July 2018 |newspaper=The Hindu |date=12 July 1958}}</ref>

He edited magazines in London, Hong Kong and New York. He became the editor of ''The Asia Magazine'' in 1971. He scripted and partially directed over 20 television documentaries for the [[BBC]] and ITV. He was a war correspondent in Algeria, Israel and Vietnam. In 1976 he joined the United Nations.<ref>{{cite web |title=Dom Moraes |url=https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/obituaries/1463547/Dom-Moraes.html |website=telegraph.co.uk |publisher=telegraph.co.uk |access-date=3 September 2018}}</ref>

Moraes conducted one of the first interviews of the [[Tenzin Gyatso, 14th Dalai Lama|Dalai Lama]] after the Tibetan spiritual leader fled to India in 1959. The Dalai Lama was then 23 and Moraes, 20.<ref>{{cite web |title=A Requiem To Domsky |url=https://www.outlookindia.com/magazine/story/a-requiem-to-domsky/224589 |website=outlookindia.com |publisher=outlookindia.com |access-date=3 September 2018}}</ref>

==Later life==
He had a lifelong battle with alcoholism. Moraes suffered from cancer, but refused treatment and died from a heart attack in [[Bandra]], Mumbai. He was buried in the city's Sewri Cemetery and as per his last wishes Sarayu Srivatsa buried the soil from his grave in [[Odcombe]], Somerset, on 19 July 2002 (his birthdate).<ref name="tribune">{{cite news| url=http://www.tribuneindia.com/2007/20071013/saturday/above.htm| title=Requiem to Dom Moraes| first=Khushwant| last=Singh| newspaper=[[The Tribune (Chandigarh)|The Tribune]]| date=13 October 2007}}</ref> 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 the [[Church of St Peter and St Paul, Odcombe|Church of St Peter and St Paul]] to mark the service.{{Citation needed|date=December 2007}}

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 Diu]] from Portuguese India. He tore up his Indian passport on TV in protest.<ref>{{cite web |title=SAHGAL'S PROTEST STEMS FROM HATRED FOR MODI |url=https://www.dailypioneer.com/columnists/usual-suspects/sahgals-protest-stems-from-hatred-for-modi.html |website=dailypioneer.com |publisher=dailypioneer.com |access-date=3 September 2018}}</ref> He was later allowed back in the country.<ref>{{cite web |title=Return of Stranger Dom Moraes |url=https://brill.com/view/book/edcoll/9789401211086/B9789401211086-s021.xml |website=brill.com |publisher=brill.com |access-date=3 September 2018}}</ref>

When the [[2002 Gujarat violence|Gujarat riots]] erupted 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.<ref>{{cite web |title=Brilliant young writer, whose star, lauded by bohemian London, dimmed in later life |url=https://www.theguardian.com/news/2004/jun/04/guardianobituaries.india |website=theguardian.com |publisher=theguardian.com |access-date=3 September 2018}}</ref>

[[File:Memorial to Dom Moraes - geograph.org.uk - 1118472.jpg|thumb|Memorial to Dom Moraes]]

Moraes ended his writing career, writing books in collaboration with Sarayu Srivatsa.<ref>{{cite web |title=The stranger who found belonging at last |url=https://www.thehindu.com/thehindu/mag/2004/06/13/stories/2004061300080100.htm |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20070930184259/http://www.thehindu.com/thehindu/mag/2004/06/13/stories/2004061300080100.htm |url-status=dead |archive-date=30 September 2007 |website=[[The Hindu]] |access-date=3 September 2018}}</ref><ref>{{cite journal |title=Death and Departure: Meeting Dom Moraes |journal=Indian Literature |volume=48 |issue=4 (222) |pages=7–15 |publisher=jstor.org |jstor=23341511 |last1=Bhattacharjee |first1=Sankarlal |year=2004 }}</ref>

==Personal life==
In 1956, aged 18, he was courted by [[Henrietta Moraes|Audrey Wendy Abbott]] who later changed her name to Henrieta. They married in 1961. He left her, according to his close friends in London, but did not divorce her.{{Citation needed|date=July 2009}} He had a son, Francis Moraes, with his second wife [[Jude Moraes|Judith]], whom he divorced and returned to India in 1968. In 1969, he married the Indian actress [[Leela Naidu]]. They were treated as a star couple, and known across the world for over two decades. Their marriage ended in a separation.<ref>{{ cite news|title=Leela Naidu personified grace and beauty|url=http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/city/mumbai/Leela-Naidu-personified-grace-and-beauty/articleshow/4831749.cms|newspaper=[[The Times of India]]|date= 29 July 2009 }}</ref> For the last 13 years of his life he lived with Sarayu Srivatsa, with whom he co-authored two books.<ref name="Obituary"/>

==Bibliography==
* 1951: ''Green is the Grass'', a book of [[cricket]] essays<ref>James D. Coldham, "Book Reviews", ''[[The Cricketer]]'', 31 May 1952, p. 181.</ref>
* 1957: ''A Beginning'', his first book of poems (winner of the [[Hawthornden Prize]] in 1958)
* 1960: ''Poems'', his second book of poems
* [[1960 in literature|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 in poetry|1990]]: ''Serendip'' (winner of the 1994 [[List of Sahitya Akademi Award winners for English|Sahitya Akademi Award]])
* [[1992 in literature|1992]]: ''Out of God's Oven: Travels in a Fractured Land'', co-authored with Sarayu Srivatsa<ref>{{cite web |title=Sarayu Srivatsa on Dom Moraes and their Travelogue Out of God's Oven |url=http://indianculturalforum.in/2017/09/18/sarayu-srivatsa-dom-moraes-out-of-gods-oven/ |website=indianculturalforum.in |publisher=indianculturalforum.in |access-date=3 September 2018}}</ref>
* 1994: ''Never at Home'', memoir'' (Penguin)<ref>{{cite web |title=Never at Home: A breathless account of Dom Moraes' globe-trotting days |url=https://www.indiatoday.in/magazine/society-the-arts/books/story/19921231-book-review-never-at-home-by-dom-moraes-767351-2013-05-22 |website=indiatoday.in |publisher=indiatoday.in |access-date=16 July 2019}}</ref>
* [[2003 in literature|2003]]: ''The Long Strider'', co-authored with Sarayu Srivatsa
* ''Heiress to Destiny'', biography of [[Indira Gandhi]]
* 2012: ''Selected Poems'' edited by [[Ranjit Hoskote]] (Penguin)<ref>{{cite web |title=Dom Moraes ( Selected Poems ) |url=https://www.exoticindiaart.com/book/details/dom-moraes-selected-poems-NAG349/ |website=exoticindiaart.com |publisher=exoticindiaart.com |access-date=3 September 2018}}</ref>

==Awards and recognitions==
* [[Hawthornden Prize]] for the best work of the imagination, 1958, for the book of poems ''A Beginning''
* Autumn Choice of the [[Poetry Book Society]] for ''Poems'' (1960)

== Appearances in the following poetry Anthologies ==
* ''A New Book of Indian Poems In English'' (2000) ed. by [[Gopi Kottoor]] and published by [[Poetry Chain]] and [[Writers Workshop]], [[Calcutta]]
* ''The Oxford India Anthology of Twelve Modern Indian Poets'' (1992) ed. by [[Arvind Krishna Mehrotra]] and published by [[Oxford University Press]], [[New Delhi]]<ref>{{cite web |title=The Oxford India Anthology of Twelve Modern Indian Poets |url=https://www.cse.iitk.ac.in/users/amit/books/mehrotra-1993-oxford-india-anthology.html |website=cse.iitk.ac.in |publisher=cse.iitk.ac.in |access-date=23 August 2018}}</ref><ref>{{cite web |title=Book review: 'Twelve Modern Indian Poets' by Arvind Krishna Mehrotra |url=https://www.indiatoday.in/magazine/indiascope/story/19920815-book-review-twelve-modern-indian-poets-by-arvind-krishna-mehrotra-766731-2013-01-03 |website=indiatoday.in |publisher=indiatoday.in |access-date=23 August 2018}}</ref>

==Interviews==

*''Indiatoday.in : Celebrated poet discusses his craft and his calling in an interview with Tarun Tejpal.''( May 15, 1990 ) [https://www.indiatoday.in/magazine/society-the-arts/books/story/19900515-i-regret-that-i-didnt-write-any-worthwhile-poetry-for-so-long-dom-moraes-812567-1990-05-15 Interview: I regret that I didn't write any worthwhile poetry for so long: Dom Moraes]

==See also==
{{portal|Biography|India|Poetry}}
*[[Indian English Poetry]]
*[[Indian poetry in English]]
*[[Indian English Literature]]
*[[Indian literature]]

==References==

{{reflist}}

==External links==
*[http://www.jayabhattacharjirose.com/indian-literature-in-english-by-dom-moraes/ “Indian Literature in English” by Dom Moraes ]
*Ranjit Hoskote: [https://web.archive.org/web/20040911150856/http://www.hindu.com/mag/2004/06/13/stories/2004061300080100.htm Obituary for Dom Moraes], ''[[The Hindu]]'', 13 June 2004.
*Archival Material at {{wikidata|qualifier|property|P485|Q24568958|P856|format=\[%q %p\]}}

{{Sahitya Akademi Award for English}}

{{Authority control}}

{{DEFAULTSORT:Moraes, Dom}}
[[Category:1938 births]]
[[Category:2004 deaths]]
[[Category:Alumni of Jesus College, Oxford]]
[[Category:English-language poets from India]]
[[Category:Goan Catholics]]
[[Category:20th-century Indian poets]]
[[Category:Indian Roman Catholics]]
[[Category:Writers from Mumbai]]
[[Category:Recipients of the Sahitya Akademi Award in English]]
[[Category:20th-century English poets]]
[[Category:21st-century Indian poets]]
[[Category:British male poets]]
[[Category:20th-century English male writers]]
[[Category:21st-century English male writers]]
[[Category:Moraes family]]

Dom Moraes - Revision history

>KyloRen3 at 05:06, 24 June 2021