About the Book: Sachchidanand Hiranand Vatsyayan—better known by his pen name Agyeya—is one of the towering figures of modern Hindi literature, a poet, novelist, critic, revolutionary, and experimenter with life itself. In Writer, Rebel, Soldier, Lover: The Many Lives of Agyeya, Akshaya Mukul delivers the definitive biography of this enigmatic nonconformist, exploring his public triumphs and controversies as well as the private and secret facets of his life. Drawing on previously unexplored archival materials—from Agyeya’s own private papers to records of the CIA‑funded Congress for Cultural Freedom, jail documents, dream journals, correspondence, and more—Mukul reveals a man who was revolutionary in more ways than one: from his youthful radicalism and bomb‑making abilities, to his literary innovations and complex relationships with politics, women, and ideas. Along the way, the biography illuminates the rich tapestry of 20th‑century Hindi literary history: the intellectual ferment of colonial and early independent India, the battles over modernism and tradition, factionalism within literary circles, cultural politics, and the shaping of Hindi’s voice in a new nation. Ambitious, scholarly, intimate, Writer, Rebel, Soldier, Lover is a sweeping portrait of a life lived on many frontiers—creative, political, emotional—and the legacy of a man who resisted categorization
