The Life in the Writing: Syed Hussein Alatas

Masturah Alatas
Paperback
9789670076225

The Life in the Writing is the first biography of Malaysian scholar and former National University of Singapore academic, Syed Hussein Alatas (1928-2007). The author has chosen to reconstruct her father’s life by focusing on the very activity which brought his learning to the world: writing. Containing previously unpublished material and rare photographs, this biography also reveals for the first time how Syed Hussein Alatas’ most famous work, The Myth of the Lazy Native, got published, what his connections to Edward W. Said and Virginia Woolf were, and more.  Originally published in 2010, this new edition of The Life in the Writing contains exclusive new content about Alatas and Italy, previously unpublished samples of his poetry and letters, his contributions to the Rukunegara, his thoughts on May 13, censorship, and UFO sightings, and a contribution from Malaysian filmmaker and writer, Amir Muhammad. Masturah Alatas has attempted to portray Syed Hussein Alatas’ life through the art of his writings so that readers may know him, and also know what it took for him to become known.