U. R. Ananthamurthy 1932 2014 writer teacher literary critic and public intellectual was born in Shivamogga districtin Karnataka. In 1965 his debut novel Samskara took the literary world by storm with its unflinching portrayal of the rigidorthodoxy in Brahmin society. Since then it has become a landmark novel of the modernist or Navya movement of the 1950sand 1960s in Kannada literature. In a career that spanned more than five decades Ananthamurthy wrote five novels severalcollections of short stories poetry and essays a play and an autobiography. He received the Jnanpith Award Indias highestliterary honour in 1994 and was nominated for the Man Booker International Prize in 2013.The Essential U. R. Ananthamurthy is a five part compendium of select fictional and non fictional works poetry andautobiographical writings from one of Indias most illustrious and outspoken writers. The section Novels portrays characters inconflict with tradition idealism and modernity in a rapidly changing independent India through excerpts from powerful novels such as Samskara Bharathipura Avasthe and Bhava. Poetry presents five evocative poems on the themes of power and politics.Short Stories highlights the chief themes that preoccupied Ananthamurthy the constraints of the traditional order the culturaldominance of the West the sinister workings of power and the creativity of political dissent. Essays and Speeches captures therange and depth of Ananthamurthys democratic imagination through his writings on cultural identity and literature communityand creativity linguistic and nationalist politics and on figures such as Mahatma Gandhi and Ram Manohar Lohia. And the finalsection Memoirs gathers Ananthamurthys memories of family friendships work and travel from the different phases of his life.The Essential U. R. Ananthamurthy offers a rich glimpse into the mind of one of modern Indias most profound writers and thinkersand demonstrates why Ananthamurthys works will endure for generations to come.