Pramoedya Ananta Toer
6 February 1925 – 30 April 2006
Pramoedya Ananta Toer was an Indonesian novelist and essayist whose work spans the late colonial period, the revolution and the New Order. Imprisoned in turn by the Dutch and by the Suharto government, he composed the four novels of the Buru Quartet while detained without trial on Buru Island. His books were banned in Indonesia for decades, and he received the Ramon Magsaysay Award in 1995.
Lived at the same time
Well-documented people whose lives overlapped with Pramoedya Ananta Toer.
- Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn (1918–2008) Overlapped 81 years →
- Arthur C. Clarke (1917–2008) Overlapped 81 years →
- Atal Bihari Vajpayee (1924–2018) Overlapped 81 years →
- Augusto Pinochet (1915–2006) Overlapped 81 years →
- Charles Aznavour (1924–2018) Overlapped 81 years →
- Chen-Ning Yang (1922–2025) Overlapped 81 years →
Life events
He was born in the Dutch East Indies town of Blora, the son of a schoolteacher.
Source: en.wikipedia.orgHe relocated to the capital during the Japanese occupation and took work with a news agency.
Source: en.wikipedia.orgHe was held for about two years and wrote several early works, including The Fugitive, while in detention.
Source: en.wikipedia.orgHe took a leading role in the leftist cultural body and in literary debates of the Sukarno years.
His library and manuscripts were destroyed and he was detained without trial during the anti-communist purge.
Source: en.wikipedia.orgHe spent a decade in the penal colony, where he narrated and later wrote the novels of the Buru Quartet.
Source: en.wikipedia.orgThe novel appeared in Jakarta after his release and was banned by the authorities the following year.
Source: en.wikipedia.orgThe award drew protest from some Indonesian writers and renewed international attention to his work.
Source: en.wikipedia.orgHe died at the age of 81 following complications of diabetes and heart disease.
Source: en.wikipedia.org