David Davidar
| David Davidar | |
|---|---|
| Born |
September 27, 1958 Nagercoil, Tamilnadu |
| Education | Madras Christian College, Harvard University |
| Occupation | Novelist, publisher, former ceo of Penguin Group |
| Spouse(s) | Rachna Singh |
David Davidar (born 27 September 1958) is an Indian novelist and publisher. He is the author of three published novels, The House of Blue Mangoes (2002), The Solitude of Emperors (2007) and Ithaca (2011). In parallel to his writing career, Davidar has been a publisher for a quarter century. He is the co-founder of Aleph Book Company, a literary publishing firm based in New Delhi.
David Davidar was born in Nagercoil, Kanyakumari district in the South Indian state of Tamil Nadu. His father was a tea planter in Kerala and his mother was a teacher. Davidar grew up in Kerala and Tamil Nadu, and both states feature prominently in his fiction. He has one sibling, Ruth Swamy, a nutritionist and dietician.
He attended Sainik School, Amaravathinagar in Coimbatore district (Presently in Tirupur District) and then earned a BSc degree in Botany from Madras Christian College in 1979. In 1985, he obtained a diploma in publishing from the Radcliffe Publishing Procedures Course at Harvard University
Davidar has been married to Rachna Singh, a bookseller, since 1997. She has worked at The Bookshop in New Delhi which her family owns, as well as at bookstores in Canada, among them, Nicholas Hoare, Ben McNally Books and McNally Robinson.
In 2010, after he was accused by a former colleague of sexual harassment, Davidar and Penguin parted ways. He dismissed the allegations which were dropped after the parties reached a settlement.
Davidar began a career in journalism after graduating from college. His first job, in 1979, was with the Bombay-based activist magazine, Himmat which was founded by Rajmohan Gandhi, the grandson of Mahatma Gandhi. When that magazine closed down, Davidar joined a features magazine called Keynote which was edited by the distinguished poet Dom Moraes, and his actress wife, Leela Naidu. His last job in journalism was with another features magazine called Gentleman where he was Executive Editor. In addition to his magazine career, Davidar was a columnist for the Hindu newspaper in the 1990s. He has also written numerous articles and book reviews for newspapers and magazines in India, the UK and the US.
In 1985, after obtaining his diploma in publishing, Davidar was hired by Peter Mayer, then chairman of the multinational publishing company, Penguin, as one of the founder members of Penguin India. As its first Editor, and later Publisher, Davidar edited or published a distinguished line-up of authors including Arundhati Roy, Kiran Desai, Vikram Seth, Pavan K. Varma, Shashi Tharoor, Khushwant Singh, Vikram Chandra, Rohinton Mistry, Salman Rushdie, Upamanyu Chatterjee, Mark Tully, William Dalrymple, Damon Galgut, Nandan Nilekani and Romila Thapar. In the course of his career with Penguin in India, Davidar held a variety of senior positions, among them, publisher, Penguin India; CEO, Penguin India; managing director, Dorling Kindersley India; and CEO, Pearson India.
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