Salman Rushdie's Life Experience

Ever since language and writing were invented, the latter has evolved into an art that has been mastered by several personalities over the years. Their written works have become classics and the writers themselves have become celebrated personalities. One of the many names with this status is Salman Rushdie, a Indian essayist, and novelist, whose works like Midnight’s Children have received much praise.

He was born Ahmed Salman Rushdie on the 19th of June, 1947 in Bombay, India. His father, Anis Ahmed Rushdie was a lawyer/businessman while his mother, Negin Bhatt, was a teacher. He was raised in a Kashmiri Muslim family along with three sisters. For his education, he attended Cathedral and John Connon School before heading over to King’s College, Cambridge where he studied history. His career as a writer began with the advertising agency, Ogilvy & Mather, where he worked as a copywriter. During his copywriting career, he also worked for Ayer Barker. He has published over twelve books as a novelist and has written several columns in various newspapers and magazines as an essayist. Over the course of his writing career, Salman Rushdie has won several awards, over 30 of them, including the PEN Pinter Prize, Booker Prize for Fiction, and Author of the Year from Book Awards. 

Salman Rushdie is known for his magic realism, satire, and postcolonialism writing, which has been expressed through popular works like Midnight’s Children, Shame, Shalimar the Clown, and several others. He is also known to focus on religion and the impacts of religion on society. He released his first novel, Grimus, a semi-science fiction book in 1975 but it did not find much success. His follow-up book, Midnight’s Children, which he released in 1981, catapulted him into the limelight, winning the Booker Prize in 1981 and has also won in 1993 and 2008. Since his Midnight’s Children, a book that follows the character, Saleem Sinai, a child who is blessed with special powers because he was born at the stroke of midnight when India attained independence, he has written several other books that have achieved critical and commercial acclaim.

Aside from his fictional works, his non-fiction works have also drawn praise and controversy, most especially, The Satanic Verses. The Satanic Verses was released in 1988 and it sparked controversy in the Islamic world. The book drew criticism from the Islamic world for its depiction of Muhammad and it was banned in thirteen Muslim countries.

Aside from the ban, Salman Rushdie also became the subject of an assassination attempt after the spiritual leader of Iran, ordered his execution on national radio, sparking a diplomatic row between the United Kingdom and Iran. The Satanic Verses became the subject of protests around the world, with several copies of the book burned and those attached to the publication of the book attacked, injured, and killed. In response to the death threats, which he continues to receive to date, Salman Rushdie was forced into protection by government.

Aside from the major controversy from the book, Salman Rushdie is also known for his knighthood by Queen Elizabeth. He was awarded the honor by the Queen in June 2007.

As an author, Salman Rushdie has released over 25 books, including fiction, non-fiction, and children’s books.

Salman Rushdie has a total estimated net worth of $15 million according to Celebrity Net Worth. His net worth has primarily come through the commercial success of his books, such as Midnight’s Children, which sold over one million copies in the United Kingdom alone. Some of his works have also been adapted into other works of art, such as performing arts through stage plays, film, and TV shows, and Salman has earned significantly through the sale of the film and TV rights.

Although he was born and raised in a Kashmiri Muslim family, Salman Rushdie is an atheist. He has been married four times and has two children. His last wife was Padma Lakshmi, the Indian American actress, and model. They were married between 2004 and 2007. During the height of The Satanic Verses, Salman Rushdie was on Al-Qaeda’s hit list.