Bharati Mukherjee (July 27, 1940 – January 28, 2017) was an

Indian American Indian Americans or Indo-Americans are citizens of the United States with ancestry from India. The United States Census Bureau uses the term Asian Indian to avoid confusion with Native Americans, who have also historically been referred to ...

-Canadian writer and professor emerita in the department of English at the

University of California, Berkeley The University of California, Berkeley (UC Berkeley, Berkeley, Cal, or California) is a public land-grant research university in Berkeley, California. Established in 1868 as the University of California, it is the state's first land-grant u ...

. She was the author of a number of novels and short story collections, as well as works of nonfiction.

Early life and education

Indian Indian or Indians may refer to: Peoples South Asia * Indian people, people of Indian nationality, or people who have an Indian ancestor ** Non-resident Indian, a citizen of India who has temporarily emigrated to another country * South Asia ...

Hindu Hindus (; ) are people who religiously adhere to Hinduism.Jeffery D. Long (2007), A Vision for Hinduism, IB Tauris, , pages 35–37 Historically, the term has also been used as a geographical, cultural, and later religious identifier for ...

Bengali Brahmin origin, Mukherjee was born in present-day

Kolkata Kolkata (, or , ; also known as Calcutta , the official name until 2001) is the capital of the Indian state of West Bengal, on the eastern bank of the Hooghly River west of the border with Bangladesh. It is the primary business, comme ...

, West Bengal, India during British rule. She later travelled with her parents to

Europe Europe is a large peninsula conventionally considered a continent in its own right because of its great physical size and the weight of its history and traditions. Europe is also considered a Continent#Subcontinents, subcontinent of Eurasia ...

after

Independence Independence is a condition of a person, nation, country, or state in which residents and population, or some portion thereof, exercise self-government, and usually sovereignty, over its territory. The opposite of independence is the statu ...

, only returning to Calcutta in the early 1950s. There she attended the Loreto School. She received her B.A. from the

University of Calcutta The University of Calcutta (informally known as Calcutta University; CU) is a Public university, public collegiate university, collegiate State university (India), state university in India, located in Kolkata, West Bengal, India. Considered ...

in 1959 as a student of Loreto College, and subsequently earned her M.A. from

Maharaja Sayajirao University The Maharaja Sayajirao University of Baroda, formerly Baroda College, is a public university in the city of Vadodara, in Gujarat state, India. Originally established as a college in 1881, it became a university in 1949 after the independence of ...

Baroda Vadodara (), also known as Baroda, is the second largest city in the Indian state of Gujarat. It serves as the administrative headquarters of the Vadodara district and is situated on the banks of the Vishwamitri River, from the state capital ...

in 1961. She next travelled to the United States to study at the

University of Iowa The University of Iowa (UI, U of I, UIowa, or simply Iowa) is a public university, public research university in Iowa City, Iowa, United States. Founded in 1847, it is the oldest and largest university in the state. The University of Iowa is org ...

. She received her M.F.A. from the

Iowa Writers' Workshop The Iowa Writers' Workshop, at the University of Iowa, is a celebrated graduate-level creative writing program in the United States. The writer Lan Samantha Chang is its director. Graduates earn a Master of Fine Arts (MFA) degree in Creative Wri ...

in 1963 and her PhD in 1969 from the department of Comparative Literature.

Career

After more than a decade living in

Montreal Montreal ( ; officially Montréal, ) is the List of the largest municipalities in Canada by population, second-most populous city in Canada and List of towns in Quebec, most populous city in the Provinces and territories of Canada, Canadian ...

and

Toronto Toronto ( ; or ) is the capital city of the Canadian province of Ontario. With a recorded population of 2,794,356 in 2021, it is the most populous city in Canada and the fourth most populous city in North America. The city is the ancho ...

in Canada, Mukherjee and her husband,

Clark Blaise Clark Blaise, OC (born April 10, 1940) is a Canadian-American author. He was a professor of creative writing at York University, and a writer of short fiction. In 2010, he was named an Officer of the Order of Canada. Early life and education ...

returned to the United States. She wrote of the decision in "An Invisible Woman," published in a 1981 issue of '' Saturday Night''. Mukherjee and Blaise co-authored ''

Days and Nights in Calcutta ''Days and Nights in Calcutta'' is a work of memoir by husband-and-wife authors Clark Blaise and Bharati Mukherjee first published by Doubleday in 1977. Blaise, a Canadian author, and Mukherjee, originally from the Indian state of West Bengal, ...

'' (1977). They also wrote the 1987 work, ''The Sorrow and the Terror: The Haunting Legacy of the Air India Tragedy'' ( Air India Flight 182). In addition to writing many works of fiction and non-fiction, Mukherjee taught at

McGill University McGill University (french: link=no, Université McGill) is an English-language public research university located in Montreal, Quebec, Canada. Founded in 1821 by royal charter granted by King George IV,Frost, Stanley Brice. ''McGill Universit ...

Skidmore College Skidmore College is a private liberal arts college in Saratoga Springs, New York. Approximately 2,650 students are enrolled at Skidmore pursuing a Bachelor of Arts or Bachelor of Science degree in one of more than 60 areas of study. History Sk ...

Queens College Queens College (QC) is a public college in the Queens borough of New York City. It is part of the City University of New York system. Its 80-acre campus is primarily located in Flushing, Queens. It has a student body representing more than 170 ...

, and

City University of New York The City University of New York ( CUNY; , ) is the Public university, public university system of Education in New York City, New York City. It is the largest urban university system in the United States, comprising 25 campuses: eleven Upper divis ...

before joining the faculty at

UC Berkeley The University of California, Berkeley (UC Berkeley, Berkeley, Cal, or California) is a public university, public land-grant university, land-grant research university in Berkeley, California. Established in 1868 as the University of Californi ...

. In 1988 Mukherjee won the National Book Critics Circle Award- for her collection ''The Middleman and Other Stories''. In a 1989 interview with Ameena Meer, Mukherjee stated that she considered herself an American writer, and not an

Indian expatriate Overseas Indians ( IAST: ), officially Non-Resident Indians (NRIs) and Overseas Citizens of India (OCIs) are Indians who live outside of the Republic of India. According to the Government of India, ''Non-Resident Indians'' are citizens of In ...

writer. Mukherjee died due to complications of

rheumatoid arthritis Rheumatoid arthritis (RA) is a long-term autoimmune disorder that primarily affects joints. It typically results in warm, swollen, and painful joints. Pain and stiffness often worsen following rest. Most commonly, the wrist and hands are involv ...

and takotsubo cardiomyopathy on January 28, 2017 in

Manhattan Manhattan (), known regionally as the City, is the most densely populated and geographically smallest of the five boroughs of New York City. The borough is also coextensive with New York County, one of the original counties of the U.S. state ...

at the age of 76. She was survived by her husband and son. Her other son, Bart, predeceased her in 2015.

Bibliography

Novels

*''

The Tiger's Daughter ''The Tiger's Daughter'' (1971) is the first novel by Indian American author Bharati Mukherjee. Plot summary The story revolves around Tara who was raised in Calcutta, educated at Vassar College in New York and is married to an American man. ...

'' (1971) *'' Wife'' (1975) *''

Jasmine Jasmine ( taxonomic name: ''Jasminum''; , ) is a genus of shrubs and vines in the olive family (Oleaceae). It contains around 200 species native to tropical and warm temperate regions of Eurasia, Africa, and Oceania. Jasmines are widely cultiva ...

'' (1989) *'' The Holder of the World'' (1993) *'' Leave It to Me'' (1997) *'' Desirable Daughters'' (2002) *'' The Tree Bride'' (2004) *''Miss New India'' (2011)

Short story collections

*''

Darkness Darkness, the direct opposite of lightness, is defined as a lack of illumination, an absence of visible light, or a surface that absorbs light, such as black or brown. Human vision is unable to distinguish colors in conditions of very low lu ...

'' (1985) *''

The Middleman and Other Stories ''The Middleman and Other Stories'' (1988) is a collection of short stories by Bharati Mukherjee. Stories from this volume are frequently anthologized, particularly ''Orbiting'', ''A Wife's Story'', and ''The Middleman''. The short story ''Jas ...

'' (1988) *''A Father'' *''The Management of Grief''

Memoir

*''

'' (1977, with

)

Non-fiction

*'' The Sorrow and the Terror: The Haunting Legacy of the Air India Tragedy'' (1987, with Clark Blaise) * ''Political Culture and Leadership in India'' (1991) * ''Regionalism in Indian Perspective'' (1992)

Awards and honors

* 1988: National Book Critics Circle Award (''The Middleman and Other Stories''). * Mukherjee was awarded an honorary Doctor of Humane Letters (L.H.D.) from Whittier College in 2013.

Related novels

* ''

The Tortilla Curtain ''The Tortilla Curtain'' is a 1995 novel by American author T.C. Boyle. It is about middle-class values, illegal immigration, xenophobia, poverty, and environmental destruction. In 1997, it was awarded the French Prix Médicis Étranger prize fo ...

''– T.C.Boyle

References

External links

''India: In Word and Image''

Bharati Mukherjee entry
in ''

The Canadian Encyclopedia ''The Canadian Encyclopedia'' (TCE; french: L'Encyclopédie canadienne) is the national encyclopedia of Canada, published online by the Toronto-based historical organization Historica Canada, with the support of Canadian Heritage. Available fo ...

Interviews

Beatrice Interview 1997
*
conversation
with Bharati Mukherjee (February 2003)

Meer, Ameena: Bharati Mukherjee.
(Fall 1989)

Misc.

BBC World ServiceA Declaration of Independence
{{DEFAULTSORT:Mukherjee, Bharati 1940 births 2017 deaths American Hindus 20th-century American novelists 21st-century American novelists 20th-century Canadian novelists 21st-century Canadian novelists Indian emigrants to the United States Bengali writers Writers from California Canadian women novelists University of California, Berkeley faculty American novelists of Indian descent American women novelists American women writers of Indian descent American people of Bengali descent Loreto College, Kolkata alumni University of Calcutta alumni Maharaja Sayajirao University of Baroda alumni American women short story writers Iowa Writers' Workshop alumni Iowa Writers' Workshop faculty Indian postmodern writers Bengali Hindus Canadian women short story writers American short story writers of Asian descent American writers of Indian descent 20th-century Canadian women writers 21st-century Canadian women writers 20th-century Canadian short story writers 21st-century Canadian short story writers American academics of Indian descent 20th-century American short story writers 21st-century American short story writers 21st-century Indian women writers 20th-century Indian women writers Writers from Kolkata 20th-century Indian novelists 21st-century Indian novelists Women writers from West Bengal Novelists from West Bengal Novelists from Iowa 20th-century American women writers 21st-century American women writers Deaths from cardiomyopathy Deaths from arthritis Indian American American people of Indian descent Indian scholars