Born Padang (Sep 21, 1921) Died Padang (May 18, 1979)
Abdullah Idrus, an author best known for his realistic short stories and novels. He is known as the representative of the prose of the ’45 generation of Indonesian literature. His education before the Japanese occupation of Indonesia in 1942 was entirely in Dutch-run schools, where he read works of Western literature and practiced writing short stories; he finished his education in 1943, then began working at Balai Pustaka—the state-owned publisher of the Dutch East Indies—as an editor. Between 1943 and 1944, Idrus wrote six short stories that were eventually published in the collection Corat-Coret di Bawah Tanah (Underground Markings).
A polyglot, Idrus spoke German, English, and Dutch as well as Indonesian.
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