Salman Rushdie

Vocation

Notable

Family

Indian writer, a Moslem famed for the condemnation by the Ayatollah of Iran along with his death sentence given on 2/14/1989, for writing his book "Satanic Verses," 1989. The Muslim community accused him of blasphemy over certain parts of the book, creating such a storm that a death contract was put out on him. Naturally the publicity created a best-seller as he fled incognito to England. The danger was real; his Japanese translator was murdered; his Italian translator was beaten and stabbed; his Norwegian publisher was shot and wounded. He married American writer Marianne Wiggins in 1988. They began living apart six months after he went into hiding and divorced 3/02/1993. In 1997 he married editor Elizabeth West and the couple had a son in May 1997. Still married to West, Rushdie became a couple with 29-year-old Indian model, author and New York City society girl Padma Lakshi in early 2000. They met the prior July at a literary party. In March 1999 Rushdie had surgery to lift the upper folds of his eyes. A genetic defect gave him his heavy lidded look and the lack of tone had become so severe that he literally had to hold his lids up with his fingers to see. His books include "Midnight's Children," "The Moor's Last Sigh" and in 1999, "The Ground Beneath Her Feet." His book "Fury" was released in late 2001 by Random House and was promptly reviewed as a "stunningly lousy novel." The author became engaged to his 33-year-old girlfriend, actress-model Padma Lakshmi, and they plan to marry in April 2004. This will be Rushdie’s fourth marriage. They married in Manhattan on April 17, 2004 in a traditional Hindu ceremony. The author in exile was knighted by Queen Elizabeth on June 15 2007. This latest honor sparked new calls for his death by Islamic militants. Shortly afterward,on July 2, 2007, he announced that he and his fourth wife Padma Lakshmi, age 36, were ending their marriage. Link to Wikipedia biography