A 13-digit ISBN, 978-3-16-148410-0, as represented by an EAN-13 bar code.

The International Standard Book Number (ISBN) is a unique^[1][2] numeric commercial book identifier based upon the 9-digit Standard Book Numbering (SBN) code created by Gordon Foster, Emeritus Professor of Statistics at Trinity College, Dublin,^[3] for the booksellers and stationers W. H. Smith and others in 1966.^[4]

The 10-digit ISBN format was developed by the International Organization for Standardization (ISO) and was published in 1970 as international standard ISO 2108.^[4] (However, the 9-digit SBN code was used in the United Kingdom until 1974.) An SBN may be converted to an ISBN by prepending the digit '0'. Currently, the ISO's TC 46/SC 9 is responsible for the ISBN. The ISO on-line facility only refers back to 1978.^[5]

Since 1 January 2007, ISBNs have contained 13 digits, a format that is compatible with Bookland EAN-13s.^[6]

Occasionally, a book may appear without a printed ISBN if it is printed privately or the author does not follow the usual ISBN procedure; however, this can be rectified later.^[7]

A similar numeric identifier, the International Standard Serial Number (ISSN), identifies periodical publications such as magazines.

Overview[link]

An ISBN is assigned to each edition and variation (except reprintings) of a book.^[8] The ISBN is 13 digits long if assigned after January 1, 2007, and 10 digits long if assigned before 2007. An International Standard Book Number consists of 4 or 5 parts:

The parts of a 10-digit ISBN and the corresponding EAN‑13 and barcode. Note the different check digits in each. The part of the EAN‑13 labeled "EAN" is the Bookland country code.

1. for a 13-digit ISBN, a GS1 prefix: 978 or 979 (indicating the industry; in this case, 978 denotes book publishing)^[9]
2. the group identifier, (language-sharing country group)^[10]
3. the publisher code,^[11]
4. the item number (title of the book),^[11] and
5. a checksum character or check digit.^[11]

The ISBN separates its parts (group, publisher, title and check digit) with either a hyphen or a space. Other than the check digit, no part of the ISBN will have a fixed number of digits.^[12]

ISBN issuance[link]

International Standard Book Numbers issuance is country specific, and is tailored for each country's national goals. In Canada the stated purpose of issuing International Standard Book Numbers for no cost was to encourage Canadian culture. In the United Kingdom and United States apparently the issuing of International Standard Book Numbers has become a profit center for the companies involved. Whether or not any of the profits accrue to the taxpayers is not known.

Australia: In Australia ISBNs are issued by the commercial library services agency Thorpe-Bowker, and prices range from $A40 for a single ISBN (plus a $A55 registration fee for new publishers) through to $2,750 for a block of 1,000 ISBNs.^[13]

Canada: In Canada Library and Archives Canada, a government agency, is the responsible entity, and there is no cost.

United Kingdom and Ireland: In the United Kingdom and Ireland the privately held company, Nielsen Book Services, part of Nielsen Holdings N.V., is the responsible entity, and there is a charge. ISBNs are sold in lots of ten or more.

United States: In the United States the privately held company R. R. Bowker is the responsible entity, and there is a charge, which varies depending upon the number of ISBNs purchased, with prices ranging from $125.00 for a single number.^[14]

Publishers and authors in other countries need to obtain ISBNs from their local ISBN Agency. A directory of ISBN Agencies is available on the International ISBN Agency website.

Group identifier[link]

The group identifier is a 1 to 5 digit number. The single digit group identifiers are: 0 or 1 for English-speaking countries; 2 for French-speaking countries; 3 for German-speaking countries; 4 for Japan; 5 for Russian-speaking countries, 7 for People's Republic of China. An example 5 digit group identifier is 99936, for Bhutan. The allocated group IDs are: 0–5, 600–617, 7, 80–94, 950–989, 9927–9989, and 99901–99967.^[15] Some catalogs include books that were published with no ISBN but add a non-standard number with an as-yet unallocated 5-digit group such as 99985; this practice is not part of the standard. Books published in rare languages typically have longer group identifiers.^[9]

The original standard book number (SBN) had no group identifier, but affixing a zero (0) as prefix to a 9-digit SBN creates a valid 10-digit ISBN. Group identifiers form a prefix code; compare with country calling codes.

Publisher code[link]

The national ISBN agency assigns the publisher number (cf. the category:ISBN agencies); the publisher selects the item number. Generally, a book publisher is not required to assign an ISBN, nor is it necessary for a book to display its number (except in China; see below). However, most book stores only handle ISBN-bearing merchandise.

A listing of all the 628,000 assigned publisher codes is published, and can be ordered in book form (€558, US$915.46). The web site of the ISBN agency does not offer any free method of looking up publisher codes.^[16] Partial lists have been compiled (from library catalogs) for the English-language groups: identifier 0 and identifier 1.

Publishers receive blocks of ISBNs, with larger blocks allotted to publishers expecting to need them; a small publisher may receive ISBNs of one or more digits for the group identifier code, several digits for the publisher, and a single digit for the individual items. Once that block of ISBNs is used, the publisher may receive another block of ISBNs, with a different publisher number. Consequently, a publisher may have different allotted publisher numbers. There also may be more than one group identifier used in a country. This might occur if a popular identifier has used up all of its numbers. The cited list of identifiers shows this has happened in China and in more than a dozen other countries.

By using variable block lengths, a large publisher will have few digits allocated for the publisher number and many digits allocated for titles; likewise countries publishing much will have few allocated digits for the group identifier, and many for the publishers and titles.^[17] Here are some sample ISBN-10 codes, illustrating block length variations.

ISBN	Country or area	Publisher
99921-58-10-7	Qatar	NCCAH, Doha
9971-5-0210-0	Singapore	World Scientific
960-425-059-0	Greece	Sigma Publications
80-902734-1-6	Czech Republic; Slovakia	Taita Publishers
85-359-0277-5	Brazil	Companhia das Letras
1-84356-028-3	English-speaking area	Simon Wallenberg Press
0-684-84328-5	English-speaking area	Scribner
0-8044-2957-X	English-speaking area	Frederick Ungar
0-85131-041-9	English-speaking area	J. A. Allen & Co.
0-943396-04-2	English-speaking area	Willmann–Bell
0-9752298-0-X	English-speaking area	KT Publishing

Pattern[link]

English-language publisher codes follow a systematic pattern, which allows their length to be easily determined, as follows:^[18]

Check digits[link]

A check digit is a form of redundancy check used for error detection, the decimal equivalent of a binary checksum. It consists of a single digit computed from the other digits in the message.

ISBN-10[link]

The 2001 edition of the official manual of the International ISBN Agency says that the ISBN-10 check digit^[19] – which is the last digit of the ten-digit ISBN – must range from 0 to 10 (the symbol X is used instead of 10) and must be such that the sum of all the ten digits, each multiplied by the integer weight, descending from 10 to 1, is a multiple of the number 11. Modular arithmetic is convenient for calculating the check digit using modulus 11. Each of the first nine digits of the ten-digit ISBN – excluding the check digit, itself – is multiplied by a number in a sequence from 10 to 2, and the remainder of the sum, with respect to 11, is computed. The resulting remainder, plus the check digit, must equal 11; therefore, the check digit is 11 minus the remainder of the sum of the products.

For example, the check digit for an ISBN-10 of 0-306-40615-? is calculated as follows:

Failed to parse (Missing texvc executable; please see math/README to configure.): \begin{align} s &= (0\times 10) + (3\times 9) + (0\times 8) + (6\times 7) + (4\times 6) + (0\times 5) + (6\times 4) + (1\times 3) + (5\times 2) \\ &= 0 + 27 + 0 + 42 + 24 + 0 + 24 + 3 + 10 \\ &= 130 = 11\times 11 + 9 \end{align}

Thus the remainder is 9, the check digit is 2, and the complete sequence is ISBN 0-306-40615-2.

Formally, the check digit calculation is:

Failed to parse (Missing texvc executable; please see math/README to configure.): (10x_1 + 9x_2 + 8x_3 + 7x_4 + 6x_5 + 5x_6 + 4x_7 + 3x_8 + 2x_9 + x_{10})\mod{11} \equiv 0.

The value Failed to parse (Missing texvc executable; please see math/README to configure.): x_{10}

required to satisfy this condition might be 10; if so, an 'X' should be used.

The two most common errors in handling an ISBN (e.g., typing or writing it) are an altered digit or the transposition of adjacent digits. The ISBN check digit method ensures that these two errors will always be detected. However, if the error occurs in the publishing house and goes undetected, the book will be issued with an invalid ISBN.^[20]

Alternative calculation[link]

The simplest way to verify an ISBN is to compute a sum of the digits of the ISBN: <source lang="cpp"> // C++ bool is_isbn_valid(char digits[10]) {

   int i, a = 0, b = 0;
   for (i = 0; i < 10; i++) {
       a += digits[i];  // Assumed already converted from ASCII to 0..9
       b += a;
   }
   return b % 11 == 0;

} </source>

The ISBN-10 check-digit can also be calculated in a slightly easier way:

Failed to parse (Missing texvc executable; please see math/README to configure.): x_{10} = ( 1x_1 + 2x_2 + 3x_3 + 4x_4 + 5x_5 + 6x_6 + 7x_7 +8x_8 + 9x_9 )\, \bmod\;11.

This is simply replacing 11 with 0, and each subtraction with its complement: Failed to parse (Missing texvc executable; please see math/README to configure.): -10 \equiv 1 \mod 11,

etc.

For example, the check digit for an ISBN-10 of 0-306-40615-? is calculated as follows:

Failed to parse (Missing texvc executable; please see math/README to configure.): (1 \times 0 + 2 \times 3 + 3 \times 0 + 4 \times 6 + 5 \times 4 + 6 \times 0 + 7 \times 6 + 8 \times 1 + 9 \times 5) \, \bmod\; 11 = 145 \, \bmod\; 11 = 2

ISBN-13[link]

The 2005 edition of the International ISBN Agency's official manual^[21] covering some ISBNs issued from January 2007, describes how the 13-digit ISBN check digit is calculated.

The calculation of an ISBN-13 check digit begins with the first 12 digits of the thirteen-digit ISBN (thus excluding the check digit itself). Each digit, from left to right, is alternately multiplied by 1 or 3, then those products are summed modulo 10 to give a value ranging from 0 to 9. Subtracted from 10, that leaves a result from 1 to 10. A zero (0) replaces a ten (10), so, in all cases, a single check digit results.

For example, the ISBN-13 check digit of 978-0-306-40615-? is calculated as follows:

s = 9×1 + 7×3 + 8×1 + 0×3 + 3×1 + 0×3 + 6×1 + 4×3 + 0×1 + 6×3 + 1×1 + 5×3
  =   9 +  21 +   8 +   0 +   3 +   0 +   6 +  12 +   0 +  18 +   1 +  15
  = 93
93 / 10 = 9 remainder 3
10 –  3 = 7

Thus, the check digit is 7, and the complete sequence is ISBN 978-0-306-40615-7.

Formally, the ISBN-13 check digit calculation is:

Failed to parse (Missing texvc executable; please see math/README to configure.): x_{13} = \big(10 - \big(x_1 + 3x_2 + x_3 + 3x_4 + \cdots + x_{11} + 3x_{12}\big) \,\bmod\, 10\big) \,\bmod\, 10.

This check system – similar to the UPC check digit formula – does not catch all errors of adjacent digit transposition. Specifically, if the difference between two adjacent digits is 5, the check digit will not catch their transposition. For instance, the above example allows this situation with the 6 followed by a 1. The correct order contributes 3×6+1×1 = 19 to the sum; while, if the digits are transposed (1 followed by a 6), the contribution of those two digits will be 3×1+1×6 = 9. However, 19 and 9 are congruent modulo 10, and so produce the same, final result: both ISBNs will have a check digit of 7. The ISBN-10 formula uses the prime modulus 11 which avoids this blind spot, but requires more than the digits 0-9 to express the check digit.

Additionally, If you triple the sum of the 2nd, 4th, 6th, 8th, 10th, and 12th digits and then add them to the remaining digits (1st, 3rd, 5th, 7th, 9th, 11th, and 13th), the total will always be divisible by 10 (i.e., end in 0).

<source lang="java"> // Java public static boolean isISBN13Valid(String isbn) {

   int check = 0;
   for (int i = 0; i < 12; i += 2) {
       check += Integer.valueOf(isbn.substring(i, i + 1));
   }
   for (int i = 1; i < 12; i += 2) {
       check += Integer.valueOf(isbn.substring(i, i + 1)) * 3;
   }
   check += Integer.valueOf(isbn.substring(12));
   return check % 10 == 0;

} </source>

<source lang="php"> //PHP function is_isbn_13_valid($n){

   $check = 0;
   for ($i = 0; $i < 13; $i+=2) $check += substr($n, $i, 1);
   for ($i = 1; $i < 12; $i+=2) $check += 3 * substr($n, $i, 1);
   return $check % 10 == 0;

}</source> <source lang="ruby">

1. Ruby

def is_valid_isbn13?(isbn13)

 sum = 0
 13.times { |i| sum += i.modulo(2)==0 ? isbn13[i].to_i : isbn13[i].to_i*3 }
 0 == sum.modulo(10)

end

def isbn13_checksum(isbn12)

 sum = 0
 12.times { |i| sum += i.modulo(2)==0 ? isbn12[i].to_i : isbn12[i].to_i*3 }
 10 - sum.modulo(10)

end</source>

<source lang="python">

1. Python

def is_valid_isbn13(isbn13):

   total = sum([int(num)*weight for num, weight in zip(isbn13, (1,3)*6)])
   ck = 10-(total%10)
   return ck == int(isbn13[-1])

</source>

<source lang="cpp">

1. C/C++

bool is_valid_isbn13(char digits[13]) { int i, check=0; for (i=0; i<13; i+=2) check += digits[i]; for (i=1; i<12; i+=2) check += 3*digits[i]; return check%10==0; } </source>

Errors in usage[link]

Publishers and libraries have varied policies about the use of the ISBN check digit. Publishers sometimes fail to check the correspondence of a book title and its ISBN before publishing it; that failure causes book identification problems for libraries, booksellers, and readers.^[22]

Most libraries and booksellers display the book record for an invalid ISBN issued by the publisher. The Library of Congress catalogue contains books published with invalid ISBNs, which it usually tags with the phrase "Cancelled ISBN".^[23] However, book-ordering systems such as Amazon.com will not search for a book if an invalid ISBN is entered to its search engine.^{[citation needed]}

EAN format used in barcodes, and upgrading[link]

Currently the barcodes on a book's back cover (or inside a mass-market paperback book's front cover) are EAN-13; they may have a separate barcode encoding five digits for the currency and the recommended retail price.^[24] The number "978", the Bookland "country code", is prefixed to the ISBN in the barcode data, and the check digit is recalculated according to the EAN13 formula (modulo 10, 1x and 3x weighting on alternate digits).

Partly because of an expected shortage in certain ISBN categories, the International Organization for Standardization (ISO) decided to migrate to a thirteen-digit ISBN (ISBN-13). The process began January 1, 2005 and was planned to conclude January 1, 2007.^[25] As of 2011, all the 13-digit ISBNs begin with 978. As the 978 ISBN supply is exhausted, the 979 prefix will be introduced. This is expected to occur more rapidly outside the United States. Originally, 979 was the Musicland code for musical scores with an ISMN. However, ISMN codes will differ visually as they begin with an "M" letter; the bar code represents the "M" as a zero (0), and for checksum purposes it will count as a 3.

Publisher identification code numbers are unlikely to be the same in the 978 and 979 ISBNs, likewise, there is no guarantee that language area code numbers will be the same. Moreover, the ten-digit ISBN check digit generally is not the same as the thirteen-digit ISBN check digit. Because the EAN/UCC-13 is part of the Global Trade Item Number (GTIN) system (that includes the EAN/UCC-14, the UPC-12, and the EAN-8), it is expected that ISBN-generating software should accommodate fourteen-digit ISBNs.^[26]

Barcode format compatibility is maintained, because (aside from the group breaks) the ISBN-13 barcode format is identical to the EAN barcode format of existing ISBN-10s. So, migration to an EAN-based system allows booksellers the use of a single numbering system for both books and non-book products that is compatible with existing ISBN-based data, with only minimal changes to information technology systems. Hence, many booksellers (e.g., Barnes & Noble) migrated to EAN barcodes as early as March 2005. Although many American and Canadian booksellers were able to read EAN-13 barcodes before 2005, most general retailers could not read them. The upgrading of the UPC barcode system to full EAN-13, in 2005, eased migration to the ISBN-13 in North America. Moreover, by January 2007, most large book publishers added ISBN-13 barcodes alongside the ten-digit ISBN barcodes of books published before January 2007.^[27]

See also[link]

• ASIN (Amazon Standard Identification Number)
• CODEN (serial publication identifier currently used by libraries; replaced by the ISSN for new works)
• DOI (Digital Object Identifier)
• ESTC (English Short Title Catalogue)
• ETTN (Electronic Textbook Track Number)
• ISAN (International Standard Audiovisual Number)
• ISMN (International Standard Music Number)
• ISWC (International Standard Musical Work Code)
• ISRC (International Standard Recording Code)
• ISSN (International Standard Serial Number)
• ISWN (International Standard Wine Number)
• LCCN (Library of Congress Control Number)
• List of group-0 ISBN publisher codes
• List of group-1 ISBN publisher codes
• OCLC number (Online Computer Library Center number [1])
• Registration authority
• SICI (Serial Item and Contribution Identifier)
• Special:Booksources, Wikipedia's ISBN search page
• VD 16 (Verzeichnis der im deutschen Sprachbereich erschienenen Drucke des 16. Jahrhunderts)(in English: Bibliography of Books Printed in the German Speaking Countries of the Sixteenth Century)
• VD 17 (Verzeichnis der im deutschen Sprachraum erschienenen Drucke des 17. Jahrhunderts)(in English: Bibliography of Books Printed in the German Speaking Countries of the Seventeenth Century)

Notes[link]

External links[link]

• ISO 2108:2005 at www.iso.org
• ISBN to EAN EAS^{[disambiguation needed ]} EBS^{[disambiguation needed ]} transition at isbn.org
• Description of the ISBN to EAN upgrade process at bookweb.org
• International ISBN Agency—coordinates and supervises the worldwide use of the ISBN system.
• Numerical List of Group Identifiers List of language/region prefixes
• Free conversion tool: ISBN-10 to ISBN-13 & ISBN-13 to ISBN-10 from the ISBN agency. Also shows correct hyphenation & verifies if ISBNs are valid or not.
• RFC 3187 Using International Standard Book Numbers as Uniform Resource Names (URN)
• Implementation guidelinesPDF (51.0 KB) for the 13-digit ISBN code.

This article needs additional citations for verification. Please help improve this article by adding citations to reliable sources. Unsourced material may be challenged and removed. (July 2008)

International standards are standards developed by international standards organizations. International standards are available for consideration and use, worldwide. A prominent organisation is the International Organization for Standardization.

International standards may be used either by direct application or by a process of modifying an international standard to suit local conditions. The adoption of international standards results in the creation of equivalent, national standards that are substantially the same as international standards in technical content, but may have (i) editorial differences as to appearance, use of symbols and measurement units, substitution of a point for a comma as the decimal marker, and (ii) differences resulting from conflicts in governmental regulations or industry-specific requirements caused by fundamental climatic, geographical, technological, or infrastructural factors, or the stringency of safety requirements that a given standard authority considers appropriate.

International standards are one way of overcoming technical barriers in international commerce caused by differences among technical regulations and standards developed independently and separately by each nation, national standards organisation, or company. Technical barriers arise when different groups come together, each with a large user base, doing some well established thing that between them is mutually incompatible. Establishing international standards is one way of preventing or overcoming this problem.

See also[link]

• List of technical standard organisations

References[link]

David Rockefeller, Sr.
Born	(1915-06-12) June 12, 1915 (age 97) New York City, New York, United States
Residence	Westchester County, New York, Mount Desert Island, Maine, Livingston, New York
Nationality	American
Education	London School of Economics
Alma mater	Columbia University, Harvard University, University of Chicago
Occupation	philanthropist
Home town	New York City, New York
Net worth	US$2.9 billion
Political party	Republican
Spouse	Margaret "Peggy" McGrath 1940-1996 (Her death)
Children	David, Abby, Neva, Peggy, Richard, Eileen
Parents	John D. Rockefeller, Jr., Abby Aldrich Rockefeller
Relatives	John D. Rockefeller (Granfather)

David Rockefeller, Sr. (born June 12, 1915) is the current patriarch of the Rockefeller family. He is the youngest and only surviving child of John D. Rockefeller, Jr. and Abby Aldrich Rockefeller, and the only surviving grandchild of oil tycoon John D. Rockefeller, founder of Standard Oil. His five siblings were Abby, John D. III, Nelson, Laurance and Winthrop.

Early life[link]

Rockefeller was born in New York City and grew up in a nine-story mansion at 10 West 54th Street, the then-largest private residence in the city. The home contained rare, ancient, medieval and Renaissance treasures collected by his father — with some, such as the Unicorn Tapestries, held in an adjoining building at 12 West 54th Street. On the seventh floor was his mother Abby's private modern art gallery. The mansion was subsequently donated by David's father as a site for the sculpture garden in his wife's name and memory, now part of the complex that is the Museum of Modern Art.

He spent much time as a child at the vast family estate of Pocantico (see Kykuit), where, in his memoirs, he recalls visits by powerful associates of his father, including General George C. Marshall, the adventurer Admiral Richard Byrd (whose Antarctic expeditions had been funded by the family), and the famous aviator Charles Lindbergh.^[1] Summer vacations were spent at the Eyrie, a vast 100-room mansion in Seal Harbor on the southeast shore of Mount Desert Island, in Maine. The mansion was demolished by the family in the early 1960s.

Rockefeller attended the experimental Lincoln School at 123rd Street in Harlem. The school was the brainchild of Abraham Flexner, who had structured the institution after the educational philosophy of John Dewey. It opened in 1916 and was operated by the Teachers College at Columbia University, with crucial funding in its early years from the Rockefellers' General Education Board, a philanthropic educational institution later rolled into the Rockefeller Foundation.

In 1936, Rockefeller graduated cum laude from Harvard University. He did a postgraduate year in economics at Harvard and then a year at the London School of Economics. It was at the LSE that he first met John F. Kennedy (although he had earlier been his contemporary at Harvard) and briefly dated Kennedy's sister Kathleen.^[2] During his time abroad, Rockefeller briefly worked in the London branch of what was to become the Chase Manhattan Bank. Returning to the United States to complete his graduate studies, he in 1940 received a Ph.D. from the University of Chicago. His dissertation was entitled: "Unused Resources and Economic Waste".

After completing his studies in Chicago, he became secretary to New York Mayor Fiorello La Guardia for eighteen months in what is known as a "dollar a year" public service position. Although the mayor was at pains to point out to the press that he was only one of 60 interns in the city government, his working space was, in fact, the vacant office of the deputy mayor.^[3]

From 1941 to 1942, Rockefeller then served as assistant regional director of the United States Office of Defense, Health and Welfare Services. After war broke out, he enlisted in the war effort and entered Officer Candidate School in 1943; he was ultimately promoted to captain in 1945. During World War II he served in North Africa and France (he spoke fluent French) for military intelligence setting up political and economic intelligence units. For seven months he also served as an assistant military attaché at the American Embassy in Paris. During this period, he would call on family contacts and Standard Oil executives for assistance, establish contacts of his own, and come to highly regard the invaluable potential of "networking".^[4]

Career at the Chase Bank[link]

In 1946, Rockefeller joined the staff of the longtime family-associated Chase National Bank. The chairman at that time was Rockefeller's uncle Winthrop Aldrich, the son of the powerful U.S. Senator Nelson W. Aldrich, and the brother of Rockefeller's mother. The Chase Bank was primarily a wholesale bank, dealing with other prominent financial institutions and major corporate clients such as General Electric (which had, through its RCA affiliate, leased prominent space and become a crucial first tenant of Rockefeller Center in 1930). The bank also is closely associated with and has financed the oil industry, having longstanding connections with its board directors to the successor companies of Standard Oil, especially Exxon Mobil. Chase National subsequently became the Chase Manhattan Bank in 1955 and shifted significantly into consumer banking. It is now called JPMorgan Chase.

Rockefeller started as an assistant manager (the lowest rank) in the Foreign Department. There he financed international trade in a number of commodities, such as coffee, sugar and metals. This position also maintained relationships with more than 1,000 correspondent banks throughout the world. He worked his way up through the ranks and became president in 1960. He was chairman and chief executive of Chase Manhattan from 1969 to 1980 and chairman until 1981. He was also, as recently as 1980, the single largest individual shareholder of the bank, holding 1.7% of its shares.^[5]

In 1954, Rockefeller became chairman of the committee charged with deciding the location of the bank's new headquarters. The following year his decision to erect the building in the Wall Street area was accepted; it was subsequently seen as a decision that directly revived the City's downtown financial district. In 1960 the headquarters was completed under his direction at One Chase Manhattan Plaza, on Liberty Street in downtown Manhattan, directly across from the Federal Reserve Bank of New York. At 60 stories, it was at that time the largest bank building in the world; it also had, five floors below ground, the largest bank vault then in existence.

In the 1960s Rockefeller and other businessmen formed the Chase International Advisory Committee (IAC) — which by 2005 consisted of twenty-eight prominent and respected businessmen from 19 nations throughout the world, many of whom were his personal friends. Rockefeller subsequently became chairman until he retired from that position on the IAC in 1999. After the Chase's merger with J. P. Morgan, this committee was renamed the International Council, and contains prominent figures such as Henry Kissinger, Riley P. Bechtel (of the Bechtel Group), Andre Desmarais, Lee Kuan Yew and George Shultz, the current chairman. Historically, prominent figures on the IAC have included Gianni Agnelli (a longtime associate, who spent thirty years on the Committee), John Loudon (Chairman of Royal Dutch-Shell), C. Douglas Dillon, David Packard and Henry Ford II.^[6]

Under his stewardship Chase spread internationally and became a central pillar in the world's financial system; Chase has a global network of correspondent banks that has been estimated to number about 50,000, the largest of any bank in the world. A notable achievement was the setting up of the first branch of an American bank at One Karl Marx Square, near the Kremlin, in the then Soviet Union, in 1973. That year Rockefeller also traveled to China, resulting in his bank becoming the National Bank of China's first correspondent bank in the United States. In November 1979, while chairman of the Chase Bank, Rockefeller became embroiled in an international incident when he and Henry Kissinger, along with John J. McCloy and Rockefeller aides, persuaded President Jimmy Carter through the United States Department of State to admit the Shah of Iran, Mohammad Reza Pahlavi, into the United States for hospital treatment for lymphoma. This action directly precipitated what is known as the Iran hostage crisis and placed Rockefeller under intense media scrutiny (particularly from The New York Times) for the first time in his public life.^[7]

Political life[link]

In a private capacity Rockefeller has interface with every United States president since Eisenhower and has even at times served as an unofficial emissary on high-level diplomatic missions. President Jimmy Carter offered him the positions of United States Secretary of the Treasury and Federal Reserve Chairman but he declined both instead preferring a private role. He at an earlier point declined an offer from his brother Nelson to appoint him to Robert Kennedy's Senate seat after Kennedy was assassinated in June 1968, a post Nelson also offered to their nephew Jay Rockefeller.^[8] On account of his personal, political, and professional connections and his family name, Rockefeller has been able to act as bridge to various interests around the world—even controversial leaders such as Fidel Castro, Nikita Khrushchev, Mikhail Gorbachev and Saddam Hussein.

In Henry Kissinger, Rockefeller found a political operative with an international and domestic perspective similar to his. They first met in 1954, when Kissinger was appointed a director of a seminal Council on Foreign Relations study group on nuclear weapons, of which David was a member.^[9] The relationship developed to the point that Kissinger was invited to sit on the board of trustees of the Rockefeller Brothers Fund. Rockefeller consulted with Kissinger on numerous occasions, as for example in the Chase Bank's interests in Chile and the threat of the election of Salvador Allende in 1970,^[10] and fully supported his "opening of China" initiative in 1971 as it afforded banking opportunities for the Chase Bank.^[11]

Though a lifelong Republican and party contributor, like his father in the dynastic line, he is a committed member of the moderate "Rockefeller Republicans" that arose out of the political ambitions and public policy stance of his brother Nelson. In 2006 he teamed up with former Goldman Sachs executives and others to form a fund-raising group based in Washington, Republicans Who Care, that supported moderate Republican candidates over more ideological contenders.^[12]

Rockefeller also reportedly has connections to Central Intelligence Agency (CIA). As well as knowing Allen Dulles and his brother John Foster Dulles — who was an in-law of the family ^[13] since his college years,^[14] it was in Rockefeller Center that Allen Dulles had set up his WWII operational center after Pearl Harbor, liaising closely with MI6 which also had their principal U.S. operation in the Center.^[15] He also knew and associated with the former CIA director Richard Helms, as well as Archibald Roosevelt, Jr., a Chase Bank employee and former CIA agent, whose cousin was the CIA agent, Kermit Roosevelt, Jr., involved in the Iran coup of 1953.^[16] Also, in 1953, he had befriended William Bundy, a pivotal CIA analyst for nine years in the 1950s, who became the Agency liaison to the National Security Council, and a subsequent lifelong friend.^[17] Moreover, in Cary Reich's biography of his brother Nelson, a former CIA agent states that David was extensively briefed on covert intelligence operations by himself and other Agency division chiefs, under the direction of David's "friend and confidant", CIA Director Allen Dulles.^[18]

Additionally, he serves as a member of the Advisory Board for the Bilderberg Group.^[19]

Policy groups[link]

Throughout his life, Rockefeller has participated in and even created a number of policy groups aimed at responding to domestic and international concerns. In 1947, Rockefeller was invited to join the board of the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace; serving on the board were such figures as Alger Hiss, John Foster Dulles (chairman), Dwight D. Eisenhower and the president of IBM, Thomas J. Watson. He accepted the prestigious appointment and was subsequently instrumental in relocating the Endowment's headquarters to a site opposite the new United Nations headquarters building, with a Chase Bank branch on the ground floor.^[20] In 1967, he formed The Business Committee for the Arts, Inc. (BCA), which is a national not-for-profit based in New York that established the annual Business in the Arts Awards, awarded to businesses who have formed exemplary partnerships with the arts community; this organization is co-sponsored by Forbes Magazine.^[21] In 1979, he formed the Partnership for New York City, which is another not-for-profit membership organization consisting of a select group of two hundred CEOs ("Partners") from New York City’s top corporate, investment and entrepreneurial firms. They are elected annually and committed to working closely with government, labor and the nonprofit sector to enhance the economy and maintain New York City’s position as the global center of commerce, culture and innovation. Through its roster of blue-chip corporations, Rockefeller sits at the core of a network of the most powerful and influential businessmen and women in corporate America.^[22] In 1992, he was selected as a leading member of the Russian-American Bankers Forum, an advisory group set up by the head of the Federal Reserve Bank of New York to advise Russia on the modernization of its banking system, with the full endorsement of President Boris Yeltsin.^[23]

On the world stage, influenced by the globalist perspective of his father, Rockefeller involved himself in a number of policy organizations focused on improving international relations. Rockefeller began a lifelong association with the Council on Foreign Relations (CFR) when he joined as a director in 1949, the youngest member appointed to that position yet. He would later become head of the nominating committee for future membership and after that much the chairman of this influential foreign policy think-tank.^[24] In 1965, Rockefeller and other businessmen formed the Council of the Americas to stimulate and support economic integration in the Americas. In 1992, at a Council sponsored forum, Rockefeller proposed a "Western Hemisphere free trade area", which subsequently became the Free Trade Area of the Americas in a Miami summit in 1994. His and the Council's chief liaison to President Bill Clinton in order to garner support for this initiative was through Clinton's chief of staff, Mack McLarty, whose consultancy firm Kissinger McLarty Associates is a corporate member of the Council, while McLarty himself is on the board of directors.^[25]

Displeased with the failure of the Council on Foreign Relations to include Japan, Rockefeller helped found the Trilateral Commission in July 1973. Zbigniew Brzezinski, the National Security Advisor under Carter and fierce advocate for international cooperation, became the inaugural United States director. Perhaps the most important aspect of the Commission is their commitment to facilitating high-level international dialogue.

The Commission came under media scrutiny^{[citation needed]} when it was later disclosed that Carter appointed 26 former Commission members (who must resign before taking up government positions) to senior positions in his Administration. Moreover, it also came out that Carter himself was a former Trilateral member.^{[citation needed]} (The Clinton Administration, by contrast, had close to a dozen Commission members, including Clinton himself; both Gerald Ford and George H. W. Bush has consulted the think tank).^[26] Addressing this and other claims proffered by traditional media, far-left and -right academics, and many conspiracy theorists, in Rockefeller's 2002 autobiography "Memoirs" he wrote: "For more than a century ideological extremists at either end of the political spectrum have seized upon well-publicized incidents such as my encounter with Castro to attack the Rockefeller family for the inordinate influence they claim we wield over American political and economic institutions. Some even believe we are part of a secret cabal working against the best interests of the United States, characterizing my family and me as internationalists and of conspiring with others around the world to build a more integrated global political and economic structure — one world, if you will. If that's the charge, I stand guilty, and I am proud of it."

Rockefeller patriarch[link]

After the war and alongside his work at Chase, Rockefeller took a more active role in his family's business dealings. Working with his brothers in the two floors of Rockefeller Center known as Room 5600, he reorganized the family's myriad business and philanthropic ventures. The men kept regular "brothers' meetings" where they made decisions on matters of common interest and reported on noteworthy events in each of their lives. David served as secretary to the group, making notes of each meeting. The notes are now in the family archive and will be released in the future.^[27] Following the deaths of his brothers, Winthrop in 1973, John D. III in 1978, Nelson in 1979, and Laurance in 2004, David became sole head of the family (with the important involvement of his son, David Jr.).

David ensured that selected members of the fourth generation, known generically as the cousins, became directly involved in the family's institutions. This involved inviting them to be more active in the Rockefeller Brothers Fund, the principal foundation established in 1940 by the five brothers and their one sister. The extended family also became involved in their own philanthropic organization, formed in 1967 and primarily established by third-generation members, called the Rockefeller Family Fund.

The extended family demonstrated their influence in the 1989 sale of Rockefeller Center to Mitsubishi Real Estate. This action freed up part of the family fortune for reinvestment in more lucrative field. The Trust has expanded beyond business in New York and is now far more diverse in their interests. Nevertheless, under David, overall family and institutional cohesion has been maintained to a remarkable degree (more so than any other late 19th century wealthy family).^[28]

In 2000, Rockefeller presided over the final sale of Rockefeller Center to Jerry Speyer's Tishman Speyer Properties, along with the Crown family of Chicago, which ended the more than 70 years of direct family financial association with the landmark New York complex. It later turned out that he had a long association with Jerry Speyer through the Museum of Modern Art, so there was still an enduring partnership in operation, though not directly financial in nature.^[29]

In 2003, he served as "honorary member" of the Jury for the World Trade Center Site Memorial Competition. This was appropriate as he had created and chaired the original Downtown-Lower Manhattan Association in 1960 that had initiated the Center, along with major backing from his brother, Nelson Rockefeller, who was the New York Governor at the time, as well as with the New York power broker at the time, Robert Moses.^[30]

Rockefeller has always limited his giving to institutions directly or indirectly related to the family; for example, in 2005, at age ninety, he gave $100 million to the Museum of Modern Art and $100 million to Rockefeller University, two of the most prominent family institutions; as well as $10 million to Harvard and $5 million to Colonial Williamsburg. In 2006, he pledged $225 million to the Rockefeller Brothers Fund upon his death, the largest gift in the Fund's history. The money will be used to create the David Rockefeller Global Development Fund, to support projects that improve access to health care, conduct research on international finance and trade, fight poverty, and support sustainable development, as well as to a program that fosters dialogue between Muslim and Western nations.^[31] Rockefeller donated $100 million to Harvard University in 2008.^[32] The New York Times estimated in November, 2006 that his total charitable donations amount to $900 million over his lifetime, a figure that was substantiated by a monograph on the family's overall benefactions, entitled The Chronicle of Philanthropy.^[33]

His Memoirs were published in 2002, the only time a member of the six-generation clan has written an autobiography (royalties from the book go to charities that assist AIDS orphans and other needy children in South Africa). Notably, it was over ten years in the writing, with many personal staff in Room 5600 involved, including the family historian who supervised the project, Peter J. Johnson, as well as Fraser P. Seitel, a former head of public affairs at the Chase Bank and one of the premier public relations professionals in America. Seitel is the author of the acclaimed textbook The Practice of Public Relations, and a senior counselor for the leading public relations firm Burson-Marsteller, a division of WPP, one of the world's largest communication services companies.^[34]

Wife and children[link]

He married Margaret "Peggy" McGrath on September 7, 1940; (September 28, 1915 – March 26, 1996), she was the daughter of a partner in a prominent Wall Street law firm. They had six children:

1. David Rockefeller, Jr. (b. July 24, 1941) — Vice Chairman, Rockefeller Family & Associates (the family office, Room 5600); Chairman of Rockefeller Financial Services; Trustee of the Rockefeller Foundation; former Chairman of the Rockefeller Brothers Fund and Rockefeller & Co., Inc., among many other family institutions.
2. Abby Rockefeller (b. 1943) — The eldest and most rebellious daughter, she was drawn to Marxism and was an ardent admirer of Fidel Castro and a late 1960s/early 1970s radical feminist^[35] who belonged to the organization Female Liberation, later forming a splinter group called Cell 16.^[36] An environmentalist and ecologist, she was an active supporter of the women's liberation movement.
3. Neva Rockefeller Goodwin (b. 1944) — Economist and philanthropist. She is Director of the Global Development and Environment Institute; Trustee and Vice Chair of the Rockefeller Brothers Fund and Director of the Rockefeller Philanthropy Advisors.
4. Peggy Dulany (b. 1947) — Founder of the Synergos Institute in 1986; Board member of the Council on Foreign Relations; serves on the Advisory Committee of the David Rockefeller Center for Latin American Studies at Harvard University.
5. Richard Rockefeller (b. 1949) — A physician and philanthropist; chairman of the United States advisory board of the international aid group Doctors Without Borders; Trustee and Chair of the Rockefeller Brothers Fund.
6. Eileen Rockefeller Growald (b. 1952) — Venture philanthropist; Founding Chair of Rockefeller Philanthropy Advisors, established in New York City in 2002.

Margaret died in 1996. As of 2002, David had ten grandchildren: (by David) Ariana, Camilla; (by Neva) David, Miranda; (by Peggy) Michael; (by Richard) Clay, Rebecca; (by Abby) Christopher; (by Eileen) Danny and Adam.

Wealth[link]

His net wealth is estimated at 2.2 billion dollars, ranking him among the 300 richest people in the world.^[37] Initially, most of his wealth had come to him via the family trusts that his father had set up, which were administered by Room 5600 and the Chase Bank. In turn, most of these trusts were held as shares in the successor companies of Standard Oil, as well as diverse real estate investment partnerships, such as the expansive Embarcadero Center in San Francisco, which he later sold for considerable profit, retaining only an indirect stake. In addition, he is or has been a partner in various properties such as a 4,000-acre (16 km²) resort development in the Virgin Islands and a cattle ranch in Argentina, as well as a 15,500-acre (63 km²) sheep ranch in Australia.^[38]

Another major source of asset wealth is his formidable art collection, ranging from impressionist to postmodern, which he developed through the raising of his mother Abby and her establishment, with two associates, of the Museum of Modern Art in New York in 1929. He is not a collector of most modern art himself but, as chairman and honorary chairman, has never hindered MoMA's acquisition of the newer works. He has donated many works to MoMA over the decades and more will go there after his death.^[39]

Residences[link]

Rockefeller's principal residence is at "Hudson Pines", on the family estate in Westchester County, New York. He also has a Manhattan residence at East 65th Street, as well as a country residence (known as "Four Winds") at a farm in Livingston, New York (Columbia County), where his wife raised Simmenthal beef cattle. He also maintains a summer home on Mount Desert Island off the Maine coast.

The Kykuit area of the family estate is the location of The Pocantico Conference Center of the Rockefeller Brothers Fund (RBF) — set up by David and his four brothers and one sister in 1940 — which was created when the Fund leased the area from the National Trust for Historic Preservation in 1991. Known as the Playhouse, it provides a setting where the Fund and other nonprofit organizations and public sector institutions can bring together people of diverse backgrounds and perspectives to engage in critical world issues.^[40]

Awards[link]

• Presidential Medal of Freedom (1998);
• U.S. Legion of Merit (1945);
• U.S. Legion of Honor (1945);
• U.S. Army Commendation Ribbon (1945);
• Charles Evans Hughes award NCCJ, (1974);
• George C. Marshall Foundation Award (1999);
• Andrew Carnegie Medal of Philanthropy (2001);
• The Grand Croix of the Légion d'honneur (2000);
• C. Walter Nichols Award, New York University (1970);
• Grand Cordon, Order of Sacred Treasure, Japan (1991);
• World Brotherhood Award, Jewish Theological Seminary of America (1953);
• Award of Merit from the American Institute of Architects (1965);
• Honorary degree, Instituto Tecnológico Autónomo de México-ITAM (2006);
• Medal of Honor for City Planning, American Institute of Architects (1968);
• World Monuments Fund's Hadrian Award (for preservation of art and architecture) (1994);
• National Institute of Social Sciences Gold Medal Award (1967 — awarded to all 5 brothers);
• United States Council for International Business (USCIB) International Leadership Award (1983);
• The Hundred Year Association of New York's Gold Medal Award: "In recognition of outstanding contributions to the City of New York" (1965).

Bibliography[link]

• Memoirs, David Rockefeller, New York: Random House, 2002.
• David: Report on a Rockefeller, William Hoffman, New York: Lyle Stuart, 1971.

Significant mentions:

• The Rockefeller Century: Three Generations of America's Greatest Family, John Ensor Harr and Peter J. Johnson. New York: Charles Scribner's Sons, 1988.
• The Rockefeller Conscience: An American Family in Public and in Private, John Ensor Harr and Peter J. Johnson, New York: Charles Scribner's Sons, 1992.
• The Life of Nelson A. Rockefeller: Worlds to Conquer 1908-1958, Cary Reich, New York: Doubleday, 1996.
• Abby Aldrich Rockefeller: The Woman in the Family, Bernice Kert, New York: Random House, 1993.
• Those Rockefeller Brothers: An Informal Biography of Five Extraordinary Young Men, Joe Alex Morris, New York: Harper & Brothers, 1953.
• The Rockefellers: An American Dynasty, Peter Collier and David Horowitz, New York: Holt, Rinehart & Winston, 1976.
• The American Establishment, Leonard Silk and Mark Silk, New York: Basic Books, Inc., 1980.
• American Hegemony and the Trilateral Commission, Stephen Gill, Boston: Cambridge University Press, Reprint Edition, 1991.
• The Chase: The Chase Manhattan Bank, N.A., 1945-1985, John Donald Wilson, Boston: Harvard Business School Press, 1986.
• Wriston: Walter Wriston, Citibank, and the Rise and Fall of American Financial Supremacy, Phillip L. Zweig, New York: Crown Publishers, 1995.
• Paul Volcker: The Making of a Financial Legend, Joseph B. Treaster, New York: Wiley, 2004.
• Financier: The Biography of André Meyer; A Story of Money, Power, and the Reshaping of American Business, Cary Reich, New York: William Morrow and Company, Inc., 1983.
• Continuing the Inquiry: The Council on Foreign Relations from 1921 to 1996, Peter Grose, New York: Council on Foreign Relations: 1996.
• Imperial Brain Trust: The Council on Foreign Relations and United States Foreign Policy, Laurence H. Shoup, and William Minter, New York: Authors Choice Press, (Reprint), 2004.
• Cloak of Green: The Links between Key Environmental Groups, Government and Big Business, Elaine Dewar, New York: Lorimer, 1995.
• The Shah's Last Ride, William Shawcross, New York: Simon & Schuster, 1989.
• Divided We Stand: A Biography of New York City's World Trade Center, Eric Darton, New York: Basic Books, 1999.
• The Power Broker: Robert Moses and the Fall of New York, Robert Caro, New York: Random House, 1975.
• The Rich and the Super-Rich: A Study in the Power of Money Today, Ferdinand Lundberg, New York: Lyle Stuart; Reprint Edition, 1988.
• Interlock: The untold story of American banks, oil interests, the Shah's money, debts, and the astounding connections between them, Mark Hulbert, New York: Richardson & Snyder; 1st edition, 1982.
• The Money Lenders: Bankers and a World in Turmoil, Anthony Sampson, New York: Viking Press, 1982.
• The Chairman: John J. McCloy — The Making of the American Establishment, Kai Bird, New York: Simon & Schuster, 1992.

See also[link]

• Chase Manhattan Bank
• Council of the Americas
• Kykuit — The Rockefeller family estate (Pocantico)
• Rockefeller Brothers Fund
• Rockefeller Center
• Rockefeller Foundation
• Rockefeller University
• Trilateral Commission

Notes[link]

External links[link]

Wikiquote has a collection of quotations related to: David Rockefeller

• The Rockefeller Archive Center (RAC): Selected Biography Contains an overview of his life, achievements and membership in organizations.
• An Entrepreneurial Spirit: Three Centuries of Rockefeller Family Philanthropy This monograph (pdf, 2005) contains a history and philosophy of Rockefeller philanthropy, organized by the Rockefeller Philanthropy Advisors (RPA), set up by various family members in 2002.
• Rockefeller Brothers Fund Official Web site Details the regular conferences held by the Fund at the family estate of Pocantico.
• Partnership for New York City (PFNYC) Web site: The Founder Brief biographical details on the PFNYC Web site, originally founded and chaired by Rockefeller in 1979.
• CFR Web site — Continuing the Inquiry: The Council on Foreign Relations from 1921 to 1996 Contains details of both David's and the Rockefeller Foundation's long associations with the Council.
• Born to be Mild A review of Memoirs in the New York Times.
• The Power and the Privilege A review of Memoirs in Business Week.

Arundhati Roy
Arundhati Roy speaking at Harvard University in April 2010.
Born	(1961-11-24) 24 November 1961 (age 50) Shillong, Meghalaya, India
Occupation	Novelist, essayist, activist
Nationality	Indian
Period	1997–Present
Notable work(s)	The God of Small Things
Notable award(s)	Man Booker Prize (1997) Sydney Peace Prize (2004)
Signature

Arundhati Roy (born 24 November 1961) is an Indian novelist. She won the Booker Prize in 1997 for her novel, The God of Small Things, and has also written two screenplays and several collections of essays. Her writings on various social, environmental and political issues have been a subject of major controversy in India.

Early life and background[link]

Arundhati Roy was born in Shillong, Meghalaya, India,^[1] to Ranjit Roy, a Bengali Hindu tea planter and Mary Roy, a Malayali Syrian Christian women's rights activist.

She spent her childhood in Aymanam in Kerala, and went to school at Corpus Christi, Kottayam, followed by the Lawrence School, Lovedale, in Nilgiris, Tamil Nadu. She then studied architecture at the School of Planning and Architecture, Delhi, where she met her first husband, architect Gerard da Cunha.

Roy met her second husband, filmmaker Pradip Krishen, in 1984, and played a village girl in his award-winning movie Massey Sahib. Until made financially secure by the success of her novel The God of Small Things, she worked various jobs, including running aerobics classes at five-star hotels in New Delhi. Roy is a cousin of prominent media personality Prannoy Roy, the head of the leading Indian TV media group NDTV.^[2] She lives in New Delhi.

Career[link]

Literary career[link]

Early career: screenplays[link]

Early in her career, Roy worked for television and movies. She wrote the screenplays for In Which Annie Gives It Those Ones (1989), a movie based on her experiences as a student of architecture, directed by her current husband, and Electric Moon (1992); she also appeared as a performer in the first. Roy attracted attention in 1994, when she criticised Shekhar Kapur's film Bandit Queen, based on the life of Phoolan Devi. In her film review titled, 'The Great Indian Rape Trick', she questioned the right to "restage the rape of a living woman without her permission," and charged Kapur with exploiting Devi and misrepresenting both her life and its meaning.^[3][4][5]

[edit] The God of Small Things

Roy began writing her first novel, The God of Small Things, in 1992, completing it in 1996.^[6] The book is semi-autobiographical and a major part captures her childhood experiences in Aymanam.^[1]

The publication of The God of Small Things catapulted Roy to instant international fame. It received the 1997 Booker Prize for Fiction and was listed as one of the New York Times Notable Books of the Year for 1997.^[7] It reached fourth position on the New York Times Bestsellers list for Independent Fiction.^[8] From the beginning, the book was also a commercial success: Roy received half a million pounds as an advance;^[5] It was published in May, and the book had been sold to eighteen countries by the end of June.^[6]

The God of Small Things received stellar reviews in major American newspapers such as The New York Times (a "dazzling first novel,"^[9] "extraordinary," "at once so morally strenuous and so imaginatively supple"^[10]) and the Los Angeles Times ("a novel of poignancy and considerable sweep"^[11]), and in Canadian publications such as the Toronto Star ("a lush, magical novel"^[12]). By the end of the year, it had become one of the five best books of 1997 by TIME.^[13] Critical response in the United Kingdom was less positive, and that the novel was awarded the Booker Prize caused controversy; Carmen Callil, a 1996 Booker Prize judge, called the novel "execrable," and The Guardian called the contest "profoundly depressing."^[14] In India, the book was criticized especially for its unrestrained description of sexuality by E. K. Nayanar,^[15] then Chief Minister of Roy's homestate Kerala, where she had to answer charges of obscenity.^[16]

Later career[link]

Since the success of her novel, Roy has been working as a screenplay writer again, writing a television serial, The Banyan Tree,^[17]and the documentary DAM/AGE: A Film with Arundhati Roy (2002).

In early 2007, Roy announced that she would begin work on a second novel.^[5][18]

Arundhati Roy was one of the contributors on the book We Are One: A Celebration of Tribal Peoples, released in October 2009.^[19] The book explores the culture of peoples around the world, portraying their diversity and the threats to their existence. The royalties from the sale of this book go to the indigenous rights organization Survival International.

Advocacy and controversy[link]

Since The God of Small Things Roy has devoted herself mainly to nonfiction and politics, publishing two more collections of essays, as well as working for social causes. She is a spokesperson of the anti-globalization/alter-globalization movement and a vehement critic of neo-imperialism and of the global policies of the United States. She also criticizes India's nuclear weapons policies and the approach to industrialization and rapid development as currently being practiced in India, including the Narmada Dam project and the power company Enron's activities in India.

Support for Kashmiri separatism[link]

In an interview with Times of India published in August 2008, Arundhati Roy expressed her support for the independence of Kashmir from India after massive demonstrations in favor of independence took place—some 500,000 separatists rallied in Srinagar in the Kashmir part of Jammu and Kashmir state of India for independence on 18 August 2008, following the Amarnath land transfer controversy.^[20] According to her, the rallies were a sign that Kashmiris desire secession from India, and not union with India.^[21] She was criticized by Indian National Congress (INC) and Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) for her remarks.^[22]

Sardar Sarovar Project[link]

Roy has campaigned along with activist Medha Patkar against the Narmada dam project, saying that the dam will displace half a million people, with little or no compensation, and will not provide the projected irrigation, drinking water and other benefits.^[23] Roy donated her Booker prize money as well as royalties from her books on the project to the Narmada Bachao Andolan. Roy also appears in Franny Armstrong's Drowned Out, a 2002 documentary about the project.^[24] Roy's opposition to the Narmada Dam project was criticised as "maligning Gujarat" by Congress and BJP leaders in Gujarat.^[25]

In 2002, Roy responded to a contempt notice issued against her by the Indian Supreme Court with an affidavit saying the court's decision to initiate the contempt proceedings based on an unsubstantiated and flawed petition, while refusing to inquire into allegations of corruption in military contracting deals pleading an overload of cases, indicated a "disquieting inclination" by the court to silence criticism and dissent using the power of contempt.^[26] The court found Roy's statement, which she refused to disavow or apologize for, constituted criminal contempt and sentenced her to a "symbolic" one day's imprisonment and fined Roy Rs. 2500.^[27] Roy served the jail sentence for a single day and opted to pay the fine rather than serve an additional three months' imprisonment for default.^[28]

Environmental historian Ramachandra Guha has been critical of Roy's Narmada dam activism. While acknowledging her "courage and commitment" to the cause, Guha writes that her advocacy is hyperbolic and self-indulgent,^[29] "Ms. Roy's tendency to exaggerate and simplify, her Manichean view of the world, and her shrill hectoring tone, have given a bad name to environmental analysis".^[30] He faults Roy's criticism of Supreme Court judges who were hearing a petition brought by the Narmada Bachao Andolan as careless and irresponsible.

Roy counters that her writing is intentional in its passionate, hysterical tone: "I am hysterical. I'm screaming from the bloody rooftops. And he and his smug little club are going 'Shhhh... you'll wake the neighbours!' I want to wake the neighbours, that's my whole point. I want everybody to open their eyes".^[31]

Gail Omvedt and Roy have had fierce discussions, in open letters, on Roy's strategy for the Narmada Dam movement. Though the activists disagree on whether to demand stopping the dam building altogether (Roy) or searching for intermediate alternatives (Omvedt), the exchange has mostly been, though critical, constructive.^[32]

United States foreign policy, the War in Afghanistan[link]

In a 2001 opinion piece in the British newspaper The Guardian, Arundhati Roy responded to the US military invasion of Afghanistan, finding fault with the argument that this war would be a retaliation for the September 11 attacks: "The bombing of Afghanistan is not revenge for New York and Washington. It is yet another act of terror against the people of the world." According to her, U.S. President George W. Bush and British Prime Minister Tony Blair were guilty of a Big Brother-kind of doublethink: "When he announced the air strikes, President George Bush said: 'We're a peaceful nation.' America's favourite ambassador, Tony Blair, (who also holds the portfolio of prime minister of the UK), echoed him: 'We're a peaceful people.' So now we know. Pigs are horses. Girls are boys. War is peace."

She disputes U.S. claims of being a peaceful and freedom-loving nation, listing China and nineteen 3rd World "countries that America has been at war with – and bombed – since the second world war", as well as previous U.S. support for the Taliban movement and support for the Northern Alliance (whose "track record is not very different from the Taliban's"). She does not spare the Taliban: "Now, as adults and rulers, the Taliban beat, stone, rape and brutalise women, they don't seem to know what else to do with them."

In the final analysis, Roy sees American-style capitalism as the culprit: "In America, the arms industry, the oil industry, the major media networks, and, indeed, US foreign policy, are all controlled by the same business combines." She puts the attacks on the World Trade Center and on Afghanistan on the same moral level, that of terrorism, and mourns the impossibility of imagining beauty after 2001: "Will it be possible ever again to watch the slow, amazed blink of a newborn gecko in the sun, or whisper back to the marmot who has just whispered in your ear – without thinking of the World Trade Centre and Afghanistan?"^[33]

In May 2003 she delivered a speech entitled "Instant-Mix Imperial Democracy (Buy One, Get One Free)" at the Riverside Church in New York City. In it she described the United States as a global empire that reserves the right to bomb any of its subjects at any time, deriving its legitimacy directly from God. The speech was an indictment of the U.S. actions relating to the Iraq War.^[34][35] In June 2005 she took part in the World Tribunal on Iraq. In March 2006, Roy criticized US President George W. Bush's visit to India, calling him a "war criminal".^[36]

India's nuclear weaponisation[link]

In response to India's testing of nuclear weapons in Pokhran, Rajasthan, Roy wrote The End of Imagination (1998), a critique of the Indian government's nuclear policies. It was published in her collection The Cost of Living (1999), in which she also crusaded against India's massive hydroelectric dam projects in the central and western states of Maharashtra, Madhya Pradesh and Gujarat.

Criticism of Israel[link]

In August 2006, Roy, along with Noam Chomsky, Howard Zinn, and others, signed a letter in The Guardian called the 2006 Lebanon War a "war crime" and accused Israel of "state terror."^[37] In 2007, Roy was one of more than 100 artists and writers who signed an open letter initiated by Queers Undermining Israeli Terrorism and the South West Asian, North African Bay Area Queers and calling on the San Francisco International LGBT Film Festival "to honor calls for an international boycott of Israeli political and cultural institutions, by discontinuing Israeli consulate sponsorship of the LGBT film festival and not cosponsoring events with the Israeli consulate."^[38][39]

2001 Indian Parliament attack[link]

Roy has raised questions about the investigation into the 2001 Indian Parliament attack and the trial of the accused. She has called for the death sentence of Mohammad Afzal to be stayed while a parliamentary enquiry into these questions are conducted and denounced press coverage of the trial.^[40] The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) has criticized Roy for what it alleges is defence of a terrorist going against the national interest.^{[41][dead link]}

The Muthanga incident[link]

In 2003, the Adivasi Gothra Maha Sabha, a social movement for adivasi land rights in Kerala, organized a major land occupation of a piece of land of a former Eucalyptus plantation in the Muthanga Wildlife Reserve, on the border of Kerala and Karnataka. After 48 days, a police force was sent into the area to evict the occupants—one participant of the movement and a policeman were killed, and the leaders of the movement were arrested. Arundhati Roy travelled to the area, visited the movement's leaders in jail, and wrote an open letter to the then Chief Minister of Kerala, A.K. Antony now India's Defence Minister, saying "You have blood on your hands."^[42]

Comments on 2008 Mumbai attacks[link]

In an opinion piece for The Guardian (13 December 2008), Roy argued that the November 2008 Mumbai attacks cannot be seen in isolation, but must be understood in the context of wider issues in the region's history and society such as widespread poverty, the Partition of India (which Roy calls "Britain's final, parting kick to us"), the atrocities committed during the 2002 Gujarat violence, and the ongoing conflict in Kashmir. Despite this call for context, Roy states clearly in the article that she believes "nothing can justify terrorism" and calls terrorism "a heartless ideology." Roy warns against war with Pakistan, arguing that it is hard to "pin down the provenance of a terrorist strike and isolate it within the borders of a single nation state", and that war could lead to the "descent of the whole region into chaos".^[43] Her remarks were strongly criticized by Salman Rushdie and others, who condemned her for linking the Bombay attacks with Kashmir and economic injustice against Muslims in India;^[44] Rushdie specifically criticized Roy for attacking the iconic status of the Taj Mahal Palace & Tower.^[45] Indian writer Tavleen Singh called Roy's comments "the latest of her series of hysterical diatribes against India and all things Indian."^[46]

Criticism of Sri Lanka[link]

In an opinion piece, once again in The Guardian (April 1, 2009), Roy made a plea for international attention to what she called a possible government-sponsored genocide of Tamils in Sri Lanka. She cited reports of camps into which Tamils were being herded as part of what she described as "a brazen, openly racist war."^[47] She also mentioned that the "Government of Sri Lanka is on the verge of committing what could end up being genocide"^[48] and described the Sri Lankan IDP camps where Tamil civilians are being held as concentration camps.^[49] Ruvani Freeman, a Sri Lankan writer called Roy's remarks "ill-informed and hypocritical" and criticized her for "whitewashing the atrocities of the LTTE."^[50] Roy has said of such accusations: "I cannot admire those whose vision can only accommodate justice for their own and not for everybody. However I do believe that the LTTE and its fetish for violence was cultured in the crucible of monstrous, racist, injustice that the Sri Lankan government and to a great extent Sinhala society visited on the Tamil people for decades."^[51]

Views on the Naxalites[link]

Roy has criticized Government's armed actions against the Naxalite-Maoist insurgents in India, calling it "war on the poorest people in the country". According to her, the Government has "abdicated its responsibility to the people"^[52] and launched the offensive against Naxals to aid the corporations with whom it has signed Memorandums of Understanding.^[53] While she has received support from various quarters for her views,^[54] Roy's description of the Maoists as "Gandhians" raised a controversy.^[55][56] In other statements, she has described Naxalites as "patriot of a kind"^[57] who are "fighting to implement the Constitution, (while) the government is vandalising it".^[52] Many commentators have noted that Roy does not hold sympathy for the victims of Maoist terrorism.^[58][59] and have called her a "Maoist sympathiser."^[60]

Criticism of Anna Hazare[link]

On August 22, 2011 Arundhati Roy accused Anna Hazare in a newspaper article of being nonsecular. She questioned Anna's secular credentials pointing out "his support for Raj Thackeray's Marathi Manoos xenophobia and his praise of the 'development model' Narendra Modi CM of Gujarat who oversaw the 2002 Gujrat riots against Muslims". The website of the newspaper published many responses to her article and these were mostly critical of her views.^[61] Social Activist Medha Patkar strongly condemned Arundhati Roy, by alleging that her views were misplaced.^[62]

Awards[link]

Arundhati Roy was awarded the 1997 Booker Prize for her novel The God of Small Things. The award carried a prize of about US $30,000^[63] and a citation that noted, 'The book keeps all the promises that it makes.'^[64] Prior to this, she won the National Film Award for Best Screenplay in 1989, for the screenplay of In Which Annie Gives It Those Ones.^[65]

In 2002, she won the Lannan Foundation's Cultural Freedom Award for her work "about civil societies that are adversely affected by the world’s most powerful governments and corporations," in order "to celebrate her life and her ongoing work in the struggle for freedom, justice and cultural diversity."^[66]

In 2003, she was awarded 'special recognition' as a Woman of Peace at the Global Exchange Human Rights Awards in San Francisco with Bianca Jagger, Barbara Lee and Kathy Kelly.

Roy was awarded the Sydney Peace Prize in May 2004 for her work in social campaigns and her advocacy of non-violence.^{[67] [68]}

In January 2006, she was awarded the Sahitya Akademi Award, a national award from India's Academy of Letters, for her collection of essays on contemporary issues, The Algebra of Infinite Justice, but she declined to accept it "in protest against the Indian Government toeing the US line by 'violently and ruthlessly pursuing policies of brutalisation of industrial workers, increasing militarisation and economic neo-liberalisation.'"^[69][70]

In November 2011, she was awarded the Norman Mailer Prize for Distinguished Writing.

Works[link]

Books[link]

• The God of Small Things. Flamingo, 1997. ISBN 0-00-655068-1.
• The End of Imagination. Kottayam: D.C. Books, 1998. ISBN 81-7130-867-8.
• The Cost of Living. Flamingo, 1999. ISBN 0-375-75614-0. Contains the essays "The Greater Common Good" and "The End of Imagination."
• The Greater Common Good. Bombay: India Book Distributor, 1999. ISBN 81-7310-121-3.
• The Algebra of Infinite Justice. Flamingo, 2002. ISBN 0-00-714949-2. Collection of essays: "The End of Imagination," "The Greater Common Good," "Power Politics", "The Ladies Have Feelings, So...," "The Algebra of Infinite Justice," "War is Peace," "Democracy," "War Talk", and "Come September."
• Power Politics. Cambridge: South End Press, 2002. ISBN 0-89608-668-2.
• War Talk. Cambridge: South End Press, 2003. ISBN 0-89608-724-7.
• Foreword to Noam Chomsky, For Reasons of State. 2003. ISBN 1-56584-794-6.
• An Ordinary Person's Guide To Empire. Consortium, 2004. ISBN 0-89608-727-1.
• Public Power in the Age of Empire Seven Stories Press, 2004. ISBN 1-58322-682-6.
• The Checkbook and the Cruise Missile: Conversations with Arundhati Roy. Interviews by David Barsamian. Cambridge: South End Press, 2004. ISBN 0-89608-710-7.
• Introduction to 13 December, a Reader: The Strange Case of the Attack on the Indian Parliament. New Delhi, New York: Penguin, 2006. ISBN 0-14-310182-X.
• The Shape of the Beast: Conversations with Arundhati Roy. New Delhi: Penguin, Viking, 2008. ISBN 978-0-670-08207-0.
• Listening to Grasshoppers: Field Notes on Democracy. New Delhi: Penguin, Hamish Hamilton, 2009. ISBN 978-0-670-08379-4.

Speeches, Essays, Interviews[link]

• We 'We,' documentary featuring the works of Arundhati Roy
• Come September Transcript of speech on 18 September 2002 and conversation with Howard Zinn
• Arundhati Roy on India, Iraq, U.S. Empire and Dissent—interview on Democracy Now!
• 'We have to become the global resistance' (Abridged version of speech at the World Social Forum in Mumbai, 16 January 2004)
• Tide? or Ivory Snow? Public Power in the Age of Empire (16 August 2004 speech in San Francisco)
• ABC Radio National transcript of Sydney Peace Prize Lecture (with audio) or download the speech here
• 'The Most Cowardly War in History'; opening statement at the Iraq tribunal (Article dated 24 June 2005)
• Podcast of Arundhati Roy and Pankaj Mishra discussing "India in the World" at the Shanghai International Literary Festival
• Arundhati Roy on the Human Costs of India’s Economic Growth, the View of Obama in New Delhi, and Escalating US Attacks in Af-Pak
• Audio: Arundhati Roy in conversation on the BBC World Service discussion programme The Forum
• Arundhati Roy on Obama’s Wars, India and Why Democracy Is “The Biggest Scam in the World”
• "In the Valley of the Tigers"; Interview with Ascent magazine on the Narmada Valley
• Gandhi but with Guns – essay about the naxalites at guardian.co.uk (2010-03-27)
• Fault Lines – Arundhati Roy (video) – Interview with Arundhati Roy on Al Jazeera English (retrieved 2010-05-06)
• Interview with the Guardian 05 June 2011 - Roy discusses political activism and why she no longer condemns violent resistance

See also[link]

• Anti-globalization movement
• Narmada Bachao Andolan
• Indian English literature

References[link]

Books and articles on Roy[link]

• Anūp, Si. (1997). Arundhatiyuṭ̣e atbhutalōkaṃ. Trivandrum: New Indian Books. 
• Balvannanadhan, Aïda (2007). Arundhati Roy’s The God of Small Things. New Delhi: Prestige Books. ISBN 81-7551-193-1. 
• Bhatt, Indira; Indira Nityanandam (1999). Explorations: Arundhati Roy’s The God of Small Things. New Delhi: Creative Books. ISBN 81-86318-56-9. 
• "The Politics of Design," in Ch'ien, Evelyn Nien-Ming (2005). Weird English. Harvard UP. pp. 154–199. ISBN 978-0-674-01819-8. http://books.google.com/?id=Fx6o5NXOLoQC. 
• Dhawan, R.K. (1999). Arundhati Roy, the novelist extraordinary. New Delhi: Prestige Books. ISBN 81-7551-060-9. 
• Dodiya, Jaydipsinh; Joya Chakravarty (1999). The Critical studies of Arundhati Roy’s The God of Small Things. New Delhi: Atlantic. ISBN 81-7156-850-5. 
• Durix, Carole; Jean-Pierre Durix (2002). Reading Arundhati Roy’s The God of Small Things. Dijon: Editions universitaires de Dijon. ISBN 2-905965-80-0. 
• Ghosh, Ranjan; Antonia Navarro-Tejero (2009). Globalizing dissent: Essays on Arundhati Roy. New York: Routledge. ISBN 978-0-415-99559-7. 
• Jōsaphmātyu, Ēt̲t̲umānūr (1997). Arundhati R̲ōyiyuṭe Da gōḍ ōph smōḷ tiṅgs: kathayuṃ kāryavuṃ: sāhitya paṭhanam. Kottayam: Toms Literary Editions. 
• Mullaney, Julie (2002). Arundhati Roy’s The God of Small Things: A reader’s guide. New York: Continuum. ISBN 0-8264-5327-9. 
• Navarro-Tejero, Antonia (2005). Gender and caste in the Anglophone-Indian novels of Arundhati Roy and Githa Hariharan: feminist issues in cross-cultural perspectives. Lewiston: Edwin Mellen. ISBN 0-7734-5995-2. 
• Pathak, R.S. (2001). The fictional world of Arundhati Roy. New Delhi: Creative Books. ISBN 81-86318-84-4. 
• Prasad, Murari; Bill Ashcroft (foreword) (2006). Arundhati Roy, critical perspectives. Delhi: Pencraft International. ISBN 81-85753-76-8. 
• Roy, Amitabh (2005). The God of Small Things: A Novel of Social Commitment. Atlantic. pp. 37–38. ISBN 978-81-269-0409-9. http://books.google.com/?id=2LgYuhRK0yIC&pg=PA37&dq=%22Pradip+Krishen%22. 
• Sharma, A.P. (2000). The mind and the art of Arundhati Roy: a critical appraisal of her novel, The God of Small Things. New Delhi: Minerva. ISBN 81-7662-120-X. 
• Shashi, R.S.; Bala Talwar (1998). Arundhati Roy’s The God of Small Things: Critique and commentary. New Delhi: Creative Books. ISBN 81-86318-54-2. 
• Tickell, Alex (2007). Arundhati Roy’s The God of Small Things. New York: Routledge. ISBN 978-0-415-35842-2. 
• Tōmas, Jōmi (1997). Arundhati R̲ōy, kr̥tiyuṃ kāl̲cappāṭum. Kozhikode: Kar̲ant̲ Buks. ISBN 81-240-0515-X. 

Other[link]

• We, a political documentary about Roy's words. Available online.
• Arundhati Roy denounces Indian democracy by Atul Cowshish
• Carreira, Shirley de S. G.A representação da mulher em Shame, de Salman Rushdie, e O deus das pequenas coisas, de Arundathi Roy. In: MONTEIRO, Conceição & LIMA, Tereza M. de O. ed. Rio de Janeiro: Caetés, 2005
• Ch'ien, Evelyn Nien-Ming, "The Politics of Design" (Weird English. Cambridge: Harvard UP, 2004; 154–199). Essay on Roy's language. Available online.
• Literary Encyclopedia (in-progress)
• SAWNET biography
• Bibliography
• Arundhati Roy – NNDB entry

Notes[link]

External links[link]

• Quotations related to Arundhati Roy at Wikiquote
• Media related to Arundhati Roy at Wikimedia Commons
• Column archive at The Guardian
• Appearances on C-SPAN
• Arundhati Roy - interview on Al Jazeera English'd Fault Lines, 2010-8-29 (video, 23 mins)
• Arundhati Roy on Charlie Rose
• Arundhati Roy at the Internet Movie Database
• Arundhati Roy collected news and commentary at The Guardian
• Arundhati Roy collected news and commentary at The New York Times
• Works by or about Arundhati Roy in libraries (WorldCat catalog)
• Arundhati Roy Faces Arrest for Questioning India’s Claim on Kashmir - video report by Democracy Now!, October 10, 2010
• Arundhati Roy on Obama’s Wars, Poverty and India’s Maoist Rebels - video interview by Democracy Now!, November 8, 2010