He has also guest-edited a special number of the Journal of South Asian Literature devoted to Aurobindo Ghosh.
Indian American scholar Professor K D Verma released his new book Understanding Mulk Raj Anand: His Mind and Art, during an event held at the University of Pittsburgh on Thursday.
Verma is the father of Richard Verma, the Vice Chairman of The Asia Group and the Former US Ambassador to India. He was also present during the launch event and tweeted a photo of him holding the book along with his father.
“Honored to join my dad – Prof KD Verma – for the release of his new book “Understanding Mulk Raj Anand” – so proud!,” tweeted Richard Verma.
Honored to join my dad – Prof KD Verma – for the release of his new book "Understanding Mulk Raj Anand" – so proud! pic.twitter.com/R0pAo94yLH
— Rich Verma (@RichardRVerma) October 6, 2017
Verma is a scholar of English Romanticism and South Asian Literature and is a Professor Emeritus of English, University of Pittsburgh-Johnstown.
Amongst his numerous publications are The Vision of “Love’s Rare Universe”: A Study of Shelley’s Epipsychidion (1995) andThe Indian Imagination: Critical Essays on Indian Writing in English (2000).
Verma was Editor of the South Asian Review, a fully refereed journal that accepts submissions on all aspects of South Asian literature, art, and culture from any theoretical or critical perspective.
He has also guest-edited a special number of the Journal of South Asian Literature devoted to Aurobindo Ghosh.
Understanding Mulk Raj Anand: His Mind and Art is a collection of critical essays and letters that examines Indian writer Mulk Raj Anand as a novelist, an art critic and a thinker in a broad cultural context of the 20th century critical theories of postmodernism, postcoloniality and new historicism.
“The 42-some years I spent at UPJ were very eventful in many ways,” Verma said. “Some of my students in English literature are distinguished scholars in different parts of the country while others are well-established in their respective fields. I established a literary journal Backroads with Sarah Berret and Larry Abbott as early editors.”
Born in 1932 in Punjab, India, Kamal Verma obtained his Bachelor of Arts from Punjab University in 1951, Bachelor of Teaching from Agra University in 1953 and Master of Arts in English from Punjab University in 1958. In India, he was principal of a Teachers College until 1963, the year he left India to study for Specialist of Education (Ed S) at the University of Northern Iowa, Cedar Falls, on Ford Foundation scholarship.
“I am very proud to say that my children grew up in Johnstown. Four of them attended UPJ, but my youngest one decided to go to Lehigh,” he said.
Richard Rahul Verma is the youngest son of Verma, who served as the US Ambassador to India during 2015-17.