Achdiat Karta Mihardja (1911-2010) was an author and journalist with a broad spectrum of intellectual tastes. He studied Western philosophy and in 1950 was one of the founders of LEKRA (Lembaga Kebudayaan Rakyat), a literary and social movement associated with the Indonesian
Communist Party. In 1961, with an advanced degree in adult education, he became the professor of Indonesian Literature and Language at Australian National University in Canberra where he lived to the remarkably old age of ninety-nine. He was honored by the Indonesian government several times
for his service to Indonesian literature.
