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U. R. Ananthamurthy (1932–2014), writer, teacher, literary critic, and public intellectual, was born in Shivamogga districtin Karnataka. In 1965, his debut novel, Samskara, took the literary world by storm with its unflinching portrayal of the rigidorthodoxy in Brahmin society. Since then, it has become a landmark novel of the modernist, or Navya, movement of the 1950sand 1960s in Kannada literature. In a career that spanned more than five decades, Ananthamurthy wrote five novels, severalcollections of short stories, poetry, and essays, a play, and an autobiography. He received the Jnanpith Award, India’s highestliterary honour, in 1994, and was nominated for the Man Booker International Prize in 2013.The Essential U. R. Ananthamurthy is a five-part compendium of select fictional and non-fictional works, poetry, andautobiographical writings from one of India’s most illustrious and outspoken writers. The section ‘Novels’ portrays characters inconflict with tradition, idealism, and modernity in a rapidly changing independent India through excerpts from powerful novels such as Samskara, Bharathipura, Avasthe, and Bhava. ‘Poetry’ presents five evocative poems on the themes of power and politics.‘Short Stories’ highlights the chief themes that preoccupied Ananthamurthy—the constraints of the traditional order, the culturaldominance of the West, the sinister workings of power, and the creativity of political dissent. ‘Essays and Speeches’ captures therange and depth of Ananthamurthy’s democratic imagination through his writings on cultural identity and literature, communityand creativity, linguistic and nationalist politics, and on figures such as Mahatma Gandhi and Ram Manohar Lohia. And, the finalsection, ‘Memoirs’, gathers Ananthamurthy’s memories of family, friendships, work, and travel from the different phases of his life.The Essential U. R. Ananthamurthy offers a rich glimpse into the mind of one of modern India’s most profound writers and thinkersand demonstrates why Ananthamurthy’s works will endure for generations to come.