Mahendra S. Rana (Comp. and ed.). nglish Litterateurs: 1794-2010. 2 vt Ltd., 2012. Size Crwn. ISBN 23 and Vol.

II, 573+Appendix+ 7,

Assist by Rekha Rana. A Dictionary of Indian E vols set. New Delhi: Sarup Books Publishers P 978-81-7625-809-8 (Set). Pages Vol. I, 566+Appendix+ Price Rs.6500/- (Set).

M.S. Rana, an alumnus of the universities of Allahabad and Delhi, has been a dis tinguished librarian, who worked in the universities of Kurukshetra, Delhi, Meer ut, and Roorkee with credit. The compilation of the 2-volume Dictionary under r eview bespeaks his editorial skills, scholarly interests and professional commit ment. It is also his labour of love, and well-rewarded, in that Rana spent about a dec ade in developing an authentic, systematic bio-bibliographical critical source b ook on over 4000 creative writers of Indian English. He includes the biographic al sketches with bibliographies and critical articles on both well-known and les s known poets, fiction and non-fiction writers, playwrights, and other creative personalities, male and female, of the last 220 years. Besides Indian men of l etters, he also includes other writers of the diaspora, whose roots are in India and who deal with Indian life and culture. In the making of massive Dictionary of Litterateurs, Rana takes help from liter ary advisors such as G.S. Balarama Gupta, Prema Nandakumar, R.K. Singh, C.S. Sin gh, A.P. Trivedi, Rajiv Verma, Badri N. Raina, Arun Kumar, and S.C. Dwivedi who also contribute critical articles and/or comments about various poets and author s lives and work. The layout of the alphabetically arranged entries typically includes personal in formation, career history, including academics and honours, literary output poetry , drama , fiction, prose, travelogue, letters, diaries, narratives, transcreatio n, and other works. The critical bibliography appears in the form of major book s and Ph.D. theses. Then, there is a note of appraisal on the literary endeavou rs of the author. Where available, the compiler provides the contact or email a ddress at the end of the entry. Needless to say, Rana tries to place the writers in the larger perspective of I ndian English literary history just as he seeks to empower the interested resear chers and scholars to decide about their areas of specialization and/or underst anding of the topics of research (for MPhil or PhD dissertation) via the informa tion provided in the Dictionary. The appendices reflect upon the status of Indian English at home and abroad even as it is encouraging to know that besides Indian universities, 89 foreign unive rsities promote researches in Indian English literature. At a time when study of literature is losing importance among our students, A Di ctionary of Indian English Litterateurs should help promote Indian English Liter ature to study the humanities. It should also prove indispensible in effective s tudy of and research in Indian English Writing to enhance critical understanding and human values. Despite printing errors in several articles and comments culled from various boo ks and journals, I find the Dictionary fascinating and significant, and recomme nd it to all English Departments and libraries in the country and abroad. --R.K. SINGH