Signet Press

Signet Press in Kolkata (previously Calcutta), West Bengal, India, is a publishing house established by Dilip Kumar Gupta (popularly known as D. K.) and his mother-in-law Neelima Guha Thakurta in 1943.[1][2] Located at the famous book arcade of College Street in front of Sanskrit College. The film-director Satyajit Ray worked as a visual designer in this publishing house at the onset of his career and many of the books don the covers designed by him.[3] The press has published many renowned books like Jawaharlal Nehru's Discovery of India, Bibhutibhushan Bandopadhyay's Pather Panchali and Chander Pahar, Jibanananda Das's Rupasi Bangla and Banalata Sen, Saat-ti taarar timir etc.By the end of the 70s though, D. K had fallen sick and soon followed by his death, The Signet Publishing house closed. It was revived back later after its purchase by the Ananda Publishers. Many of the classic signet publications are now once again available to the common readers, Be it the Samar Sen's Poem, Sukumar Roy's works or Sudhindranath Dutta's Sangbarta and Bishnu Dey's Naam rekhechi Komol Gandhar.

Not to be confused with Signet Books.

Signet Press
Founded1943 (1943)
FounderD. K. Gupta
Country of originIndia
Headquarters locationCollege Street, (in front of Sanskrit College), Kolkata, West Bengal
Publication typesBooks

Significance in the history of Bengali publication

The significance of Signet Press' arrival in College street, can be rightly found in the lines of Shankha Ghosh , from his book 'Boiyer Ghor". He writes:

"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 infallible mark of elegance, its 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 taste of aesthetics illustrating its covers, and the writings of modern poets - all these combined to create a dream world for all of us. The years of fifty-two and fifty-three, when we were at our twenty-one years of age, we saw the publication of new books from Signet, coming before our eyes 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 brought a lot of courage to 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 have any thoughts for poetry books. Signet's organization was ubiquitous, with a liberal call for "read poetry, read poetry." They even had a lot of new ideas to pull the aspiring mind from many directions, like giving a little lovely slip with a book to write a gift."

References
  1. Bandyopadhyay, Jagori (27 February 2022). "সিগনেটের ম্যাডাম". Anandabazar (in Bengali). Retrieved 1 August 2023.
  2. Chattopadhyay, Sohini (1 March 2023). "How Satyajit Ray and 80-year-old Kolkata firm Signet Press changed publishing in India". Moneycontrol. Retrieved 1 August 2023.
  3. Robinson, Andrew (2004). Satyajit Ray: the Inner Eye. London: I.B. Tauris. ISBN 1-86064-965-3.


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