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Bose, Buddhadeva (1908–1974) By Dev, Amiya
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Buddhadeva Bose was a major Bengali poet, who showed an exemplary dedication to modernism. He was a novelist, short-story writer, essayist, playwright, children’s writer, and translator who authored over 150 titles. Born in Comilla, he grew up in Noakhali and Dhaka (all in Bangladesh now). While attending college, he started a monthly publication with Ajit Datta called Pragati (Progress, 1927–1929). At 23, he moved to Kolkata. With a distinctive book of poems and a novel to his credit, Bandīr Bandanā (Prisoner’s Song) and Sādā (Response) respectively, he took up writing as his profession. At 26, he married Protiva Som, a singer who later became a fiction writer as well.
By age 26, he had begun teaching at Ripon (now Surendranath) College. Within a year, he founded a periodical, Kavitā (Poetry, 1935–1961), with Premendra Mitra and Samar Sen. Kavitā was solely devoted to poetry, and became an important venue for multiple generations of poets. He also began publishing new poetry, including an anthology of modern Bengali poetry (ādhunik Bānglā Kavitā, 1940, which he later edited himself) and a series of sixteen-pagers, Ek Paysāy Ekti (Poems a Paysa Each).