Four autobiographies of early twentieth-century actors and playwrights are presented in English translation, with substantive chapters on the Parsi theatre and strategies for reading autobiography in the Indian context.

List of Illustrations; Preface; Acknowledgments; Part 1; Chapter 1. Pioneers to Professionals: A Retrospective of the Parsi Theatre; Chapter 2. Theatrical Memoirs and the Archives of Autobiography; Part 2; Chapter 3. Narayan Prasad Betab, ‘The Deeds of Betab’; Chapter 4. Radheshyam Kathavachak, ‘My Theatre Days’; Chapter 5. Jayshankar Sundari, ‘Some Blossoms, Some Tears’; Chapter 6. Fida Husain, ‘Fifty Years in the Parsi Theatre’; Part 3; Chapter 7. Self and Subjectivity in Autobiographical Criticism; Chapter 8. Voices and Silences: Reading the Texts; Appendix 1. Historical Personages and Institutions; Appendix 2. List of Plays and Films; Glossary Hindi and Urdu Terms; Bibliography

Kathryn Hansen is a leading scholar of South Asian theatre history, especially the Hindi and Urdu vernacular traditions of North India.  She has authored ‘Grounds for Play: The Nautanki Theatre of North India’, translated ‘The Parsi Theatre: Its Origins and Development’, and co-edited ‘A Wilderness of Possibilities: Urdu Studies in Transnational Perspective’. She holds the position of Professor in the Department of Asian Studies at the University of Texas at Austin.