He joined the (TRIP), becoming a Commander, and was captured in North Sumatra during
Operation Kraai, against the Republic of Indonesia's temporary capital in
Yogyakarta (1948/49). After he was released, he graduated from high school in Medan. He studied medicine at the
Nederlandsch-Indische Artsen School in Surabaya but did not graduate. He then went to the Netherlands and studied anthropology at the
University of Leiden from 1954 to 1956, followed by the Full Course of the
International Institute of Social Studies at The Hague, 1957; and philosophy in Paris with Prof.
Jean Wahl at the
Sorbonne in 1958. He worked as a high school teacher in Surabaya, also serving as editor of
Siasat (Strategy) magazine, and the
Warta Harian (Daily News) (1966–1970). Most of his early works were short stories, poems and plays. He wrote his first novel,
Ziarah (The Pilgrim) in a month in 1960; the novel was published in Indonesia in 1969, and was awarded the first
ASEAN Literary Award for the Novel in Bangkok in 1977. He wrote two novels in 1961,
Merahnya Merah (Red in Red) was published in 1968 (and received a National Literary Award in 1970) and
Kering (Drought) was published in 1972. ==Selected works==