Parent company | Ananda Publishers |
---|---|
Founded | 1943 |
Founder | D. K. Gupta |
Country of origin | India |
Headquarters location | College Street, (in front of Sanskrit College), Kolkata, West Bengal |
Publication types | Books |
Signet Press is a publishing house in Kolkata, West Bengal, India, founded in 1943 by Dilip Kumar Gupta (known as D.K.) and his mother-in-law, Neelima Guha Thakurtha. [1] [2]
Signet Press has published several books by many authors, including Jawaharlal Nehru's Discovery of India , Bibhutibhushan Bandopadhyay's Pather Panchali and Chander Pahar , and Jibanananda Das's Rupasi Bangla and Banalata Sen . The film director Satyajit Ray started working as a visual designer for Signet Press in 1943 where he designed many book covers. [3]
After D.K. Gupta's illness and death in the late 1970s, Signet Press temporarily ceased operations. It was later revived when acquired by Ananda Publishers.
In Boiyer Ghor[ clarification needed ], [4] writer Shankha Ghosh discussed Signet Press, its location, and its poetry publications:
"Then came the store of Signet press. That is, it came to College Street. Even in the forties, many books were published from Signet, with its consistent elegance in selection and printing. But with the opening of its new store on Bankim Chatterjee Street, we no longer had to wander from place to place looking for books of poetry, be it Jibanananda Das or Sudhindranath Dutta. Dilip Kumar Gupta's diligent work on the neatness of printing (everyone knows him as DK), Satyajit Ray's excellent aesthetic taste illustrating its covers, and the writings of modern poets - all these combined to create a desirable environment for all of us. In the years fifty-two and fifty-three, when we were twenty-one years of age, we saw the publication of new books from Signet, appearing one after the other; 'Banalata Sen', 'Sanvarta', 'Parapar', 'Naam rekhechi Komal Gandhar', 'Amavasya!'. Then came the new edition of 'Orchestra' with a brand new, changed, introduction of which we began to return to our mouths: ‘I am rooted in darkness, rising towards the light’. ‘Samar Sen’s Poems’. The new versions of 'Swagata' and 'Kulaya O Kalpurush' to be released from Signet in their new attire were still a few years away. It is safe to say that Signet also emboldened modern poetry. They also started publishing books by young poets like Naresh Guha and Nirendranath Chakravarti. Besides, new versions of 'Prothoma' and 'Samrat', or 'Winter Prayer: Answer to Spring' appeared in different houses. We no longer had any difficulty finding poetry books. Signet's presence was widespread, promoting the message of 'read poetry, read poetry'. They even had many new ideas to attract aspiring minds from many directions, like including a small, lovely gift slip with a book."
— Shankha Ghosh, Boiyer Ghor
Feluda is a fictional detective, private investigator created by Indian director and writer Satyajit Ray. Feluda resides at 21 Rajani Sen Road, Ballygunge, Calcutta, West Bengal, India. Feluda first made his appearance in a Bengali children's magazine called Sandesh in 1965, under the editorialship of Ray and Subhas Mukhopadhyay. His first adventure was Feludar Goendagiri. Feluda is one of the most impactful Bengali characters of all time.
Jibanananda Das was a Bengali poet, writer, novelist and essayist in the Bengali language. Popularly called "Rupashi Banglar Kabi'', Das is the most read Bengali poet after Rabindranath Tagore and Kazi Nazrul Islam in Bangladesh and West Bengal. While not particularly well recognised during his lifetime, today Das is acknowledged as one of the greatest poets in the Bengali language.
Charulata is a 1964 Indian drama film written and directed by Satyajit Ray. Based upon the novel Nastanirh by Rabindranath Tagore, it stars Soumitra Chatterjee, Madhabi Mukherjee and Sailen Mukherjee. The film is considered one of the finest works of Ray and is often featured in the lists of the greatest films ever made.
Banalata Sen is a Bengali poem written in 1942 by the poet Jibanananda Das that is one of the most read, recited and discussed poems of Bengali literature. The title of this lyric poem is a female character referred to by name in the last line of each of its three stanzas. A draft of the poem was also discovered that widely differs from the final version. Poet Jibanananda Das was a quiet person, who preferred to live in obscurity. Until the discovery of his diaries in the mid-1990s, it was considered unlikely that he could have been in love with a woman, with or without the name of Banalata Sen. However, Banalata Sen of Natore, a tiny town in the Rajshahi area of what was then Bengal, has become an emblem of feminine mystery as well as beauty and love.
Sankha Ghosh was an Indian poet and literary critic. He was born in Chandpur District of the then Bengal Presidency, present day Bangladesh. His ancestral home was at Banaripara Upazila in Barisal District. He spent his childhood and adolescence in Ishwardi Upazila of Pabna District, which was his father's workplace.
South Point is a higher-secondary co-educational private school located in Kolkata, West Bengal and affiliated to Central Board of Secondary Education, consisting of three organisations – South Point School, South Point High School and South Point Education Society. The school operates in two shifts for all classes: morning and afternoon. The school opened in 1954 and was the first co-educational school in Kolkata. Higher secondary (10+2) education was introduced in 1960.
The Pashchimbanga Bangla Akademi is the official regulatory body of the Bengali language in India. It was founded on 20 May 1986 in Kolkata to act as the official authority of the language and is entrusted with the responsibility of reforming Bengali spelling and grammar, compiling dictionaries, encyclopedias and terminologies and promoting Bengali language and culture in West Bengal. They are widely accepted by the Governments of West Bengal and Tripura as well as a considerable number of private publishing houses and institutions such as the Oxford University Press and the Ramakrishna Mission.
Bengali literature denotes the body of writings in the Bengali language and which covers Old Bengali, Middle Bengali and Modern Bengali with the changes through the passage of time and dynastic patronization or non-patronization. Bengali has developed over the course of roughly 1,400 years. If the emergence of the Bengali literature supposes to date back to roughly 650 AD, the development of Bengali literature claims to be 1600 years old. The earliest extant work in Bengali literature is the Charyapada, a collection of Buddhist mystic songs in Old Bengali dating back to the 10th and 11th centuries. The timeline of Bengali literature is divided into three periods: ancient (650–1200), medieval (1200–1800) and modern. Medieval Bengali literature consists of various poetic genres, including Hindu religious scriptures, Islamic epics, Vaishnava texts, translations of Arabic, Persian and Sanskrit texts, and secular texts by Muslim poets. Novels were introduced in the mid-19th century. Nobel laureate Rabindranath Tagore is the best known figure of Bengali literature to the world. Kazi Nazrul Islam, notable for his activism and anti-British literature, was described as the Rebel Poet and is now recognised as the National poet of Bangladesh.
Ruma Guha Thakurta was an Indian actress and singer primarily associated with Bengali language films. She founded Calcutta Youth Choir in 1958.
Buddhadeva Bose, also spelt Buddhadeb Bosu, was an Indian Bengali writer of the 20th century. Frequently referred to as a poet, he was a versatile writer who wrote novels, short stories, plays and essays in addition to poetry. He was an influential critic and editor of his time. He is recognised as one of the five poets who moved to introduce modernity into Bengali poetry. It is said that since Rabindranath Tagore, there has not been a more versatile talent in Bengali literature.
Chidananda Das Gupta —family name sometimes spelled 'Dashgupta' and 'Dasgupta'—was an Indian filmmaker, film critic, a film historian and one of the founders of Calcutta Film Society with Satyajit Ray in 1947. He lived and worked in Calcutta and Santiniketan.
Cinema of West Bengal, also known as Tollywood or Bengali cinema, is the segment of Indian cinema, dedicated to the production of motion pictures in the Bengali language widely spoken in the state of West Bengal. It is based in the Tollygunge region of Kolkata, West Bengal, India. The origins of the nickname Tollywood, a portmanteau of the words Tollygunge and Hollywood, dates back to 1932. It was a historically important film industry, at one time the centre of Indian film production. The Bengali film industry is known for producing many of Indian cinema's most critically acclaimed global Parallel Cinema and art films, with several of its filmmakers gaining prominence at the Indian National Film Awards as well as international acclaim.
Banalata Sen is a poetry volume containing 31 poems by the Bengali poet Jibanananda Das (1899–1954). The volume reflects the contextual struggles experienced by the poet in terms of love, liberty and loss during the Post-Tagore period. This book has been named "Banalata Sen" after Das's most popular poem, which explored human fulfillment through the personification of a vaidya caste woman. This pattern of progressively exploring human fulfillment through hyperbolising a character is common within this volume.
Atul Prasad Sen was a Bengali composer, lyricist and singer, and also a lawyer, philanthropist, social worker, educationist and writer.
Chinmoy Guha is Professor Emeritus at the University of Calcutta, a Bengali essayist and translator, and a scholar of French language and literature. He has served as the Vice-Chancellor of Rabindra Bharati University and Director of Publications, Embassy of France, New Delhi. Earlier he taught English at Vijaygarh Jyotish Ray College in Kolkata for more than two decades, and French at the Alliance Française and the Ramakrishna Mission Institute of Culture for eleven and five years respectively.