V.S. Naipaul has been writing for 46 years. In that time, the Trinidad-born author of Indian ancestry has written 8 travel books, 10 works of fiction, and 6 books that defy categorization. His work possesses that rare combination of literary excellence and social significance. A House for Mr. Biswas (1961) is a Dickensian masterpiece, a poignant tragi-comedy that illuminates the imperial subject's homelessness and rootlessness. The Enigma of Arrival (1987) is an intricate and introspective search for an identity amidst the detritus of that rootlessness; it is a story of literary self-creation. India: A Million Mutinies Now (1990) is a sensitive exploration of a nation reimagining itself half a century after the end of colonialism. No other living author has illuminated the post-colonial condition with such sensitivity and acuity. Like a latter-day Herodotus, Naipaul has traveled the globe, preserving for posterity the insecurities and longings that have defined an era.

Nearly every year, rumors circle that Naipaul is on the short-list for the Nobel Prize in Literature. Nearly every year, too, rumors abound that he will be denied because the prize has already been awarded to an author from the West Indies (Derek Walcott). We believe that the greatest prize for literature should be dictated not by geographical or ethnic considerations, but on grounds of literary merit and social importance. Naipaul's credentials are unassailable. We urge the Royal Swedish Academy to award him the Nobel Prize in Literature.

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