Boonlua Debyasuvarn was born into a noble Siamese family in 1911 and not only witnessed but participated in the great events of her century. Boonlua became one of the first Thai women to earn a university degree. As an official in the Ministry of Education, she worked to improve education and represent Thailand at international conferences. Her essays on literature became the foundation of modern Thai literary criticism and her novels are now recognized as unique social histories of the times in which she lived. Susan Fulop Kepner is a writer, translator, and former professor at the University of California, Berkeley.