Portrait of V. S. Naipaul

Birthday profile

V. S. Naipaul

V. S. Naipaul, Trinidadian-English novelist and essayist, Nobel Prize laureate (died 2018)

Born
August 17, 1932
Died
August 11, 2018
Zodiac sign
Leo
Birth year
1932

About V. S. Naipaul

Sir Vidiadhar Surajprasad Naipaul (; 17 August 1932 – 11 August 2018) was a Trinidad and Tobago-born British writer renowned for his works of fiction and nonfiction in English. He is known for his comic early novels set in Trinidad, his bleaker novels of alienation in the wider world, and his vigilant chronicles of life and travels. He wrote in prose that was widely admired, but his views sometimes aroused controversy. He published more than thirty books over fifty years. Naipaul's breakthrough novel A House for Mr Biswas was published in 1961. Naipaul won the Booker Prize in 1971 for his novel In a Free State. He won the Jerusalem Prize in 1983, and was awarded the Trinity Cross, Trinidad and Tobago's highest national honour, in 1990. He received a knighthood in 1990, and the Nobel Prize in Literature in 2001.

Biography source: Wikipedia. The profile adds birthday-specific historical context from the Celebs Birthday Today editorial database.

V. S. Naipaul timeline

  1. Naipaul won the Booker Prize in 1971 for his novel In a Free State.
  2. He won the Jerusalem Prize in 1983, and was awarded the Trinity Cross, Trinidad and Tobago's highest national honour, in 1990.

The world when V. S. Naipaul was born

V. S. Naipaul was born in 1932. The year snapshot below places that birthday in its cultural and historical setting: the music and films people were following, the headlines shaping public life, and the everyday prices families encountered.

Culture in 1932

  • #1 song"Brother, Can You Spare a Dime?"
  • Top movieGrand Hotel
  • Best-selling bookBrave New World – Aldous Huxley

Headlines and milestones

  • Major sports momentBabe Ruth's "called shot" in the World Series
  • Top headlineFDR elected in a landslide during the Great Depression
  • Technology milestoneAmelia Earhart becomes first woman to fly solo across the Atlantic
  • Defining fadMonopoly board game (unofficial versions)
  • Notable inventionPolaroid filters
  • World population2.14 billion

United States snapshot

  • U.S. leaderHerbert Hoover
  • Sports championNew York Yankees (World Series)
  • U.S. population124.8M

1932 versus 2026

These figures put everyday life in V. S. Naipaul's birth year beside the site's latest United States snapshot.

Measure19322026
Gas$0.18$3.45/gal
Average home$5,000$435,000
Average income$2,600$67,500
Movie ticket$0.20$11.95
Postage stamp$0.03$0.73
Population124.8M341 million

Sources and editorial standards

This profile combines a biographical source with structured birthday and historical context. Sources recorded for this profile: Wikipedia, Encyclopaedia Britannica, Library of Congress, Wikidata. See our editorial policy for sourcing, corrections, and review standards.

Read the source biography on Wikipedia. Wikipedia text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike License.