#18 - Pramoedya Ananta Toer

 For the first time since he passed away on April 30 of last year, I was preparing a class lecture 

on Pak Pram.  So first I went to Alex Bardsley's 'Pram Page'. Since my topic was Pram's life, 

I went straight to the rather short section of articles providing biographical information. One of the
best short biographies, although not posted there, is Alex Bardsley's own recent Appreciation.

 Next I went to the Pram section of Waruno Mahdi's site, part of a larger section on public figures.  

It is visually well-presented and the best way to see the obituaries. It also includes material from 

Pak Pram's 2002 trip to southern Europe.  (Both these sites cover the 1999 spring trip to North 

America and Europe.  Both of them link to each other and to other sources such as Wikipedia as 

well as all the separate documents they each have assembled).

 A third site is Alfred Ticoalu's Pram Page, a site dedicated to Pram, which includes several quotes 

as well as the striking page on Lost Works. It hasn't been updated since 2003.

 Although certainly there is overlap, each of these three sites has its own feel and its own approach.  

It still amazes me that we have resources like this at our fingertips. Without these sites, I would
have been unable to write a lecture. With them, I could have done it expeditiously.  However, 

because I ran across so many documents, it wasn't actually quick. . . for which I take full 

responsibility.

 Finally, it was through a off-line conversation that I discovered the title of the most recent book 

published on Pram (at least in English in the U.S., I think) -- Exile: Conversations with Pramoedya 

Ananta Toer.

 And here are a few more resources: Pram on the Net by John MacDougall, which is in the latest 

(and also last) print edition of Inside Indonesia, No. 88 (Oct-Dec 2006), entitled "Pramoedya's 

Legacy." Nice photo on the cover, and click on Latest Edition at the bottom for the Table of 

Contents.

Posted on Jan 12, 2007