Some happy and sad stories surrounding the release of Nazrul's book
Kazi Nazrul Islam's literary life is only 23 years old. The poet's family was supported by the money earned by writing books. He had no other earning arrangements. He was not a poet. There was tension in the family.
Today is the birthday of the 11th oldest rebel poet Kazi Nazrul Islam. Publication of his book, sale of book rights, author's honor - these are surrounded by many happy and sad events.
Nazrul's first published book is Painar Dan. The storybook was published in February 1922. Nazrul was 23 at that time. The first edition of the book, printed by the Metcalfe Press, Calcutta, had a print run of 1,100 copies. The book of 147 pages was priced at one and a half rupees.
In those days, a copy of a book had to be submitted to the government office within one month of its publication. Otherwise there would have been a lawsuit against the publisher. No publisher wanted to go through that trouble. Before a month of publication of the book was completed, Jhanghat would stop it.
Nazrul's Agniveena and Yugbani were published together, in the same year. Agni Veena came out in October 1922, from the Metcalfe Press. 2 thousand 200 copies were printed for the first time. The price of the 66-page book is Rs. And Yugbani was a book of 92 pages. The price is one rupee. An account of the first printing of the Yugavani, however, is not available.
There are some stories about the publication of these two books. Both books are published by Arya Publishing House. Address Wellington Street, Kolkata. Arvind Ghosh was the owner of this publishing house. And director Sarachchandra Guha, who was once associated with revolutionary organizations. Nazrul was familiar with him. He showed interest in publishing all Nazrul's books. Accordingly, Nazrul gave Sarachchandra the name Yugbani for the published writings in Nava Yuga. He was then given the manuscript of Agni Veena. But it was publisher Agniveena who brought it to the market first. Perhaps because Nazrul's famous poem 'Bidrohi' was included in this book of poetry. Notably, the company did not name itself as the publisher during the first printing of the two books. Because, there was fear of litigation. Therefore, for the first time, Kazi Nazrul Islam himself published two books from No. 7 Pratap Chatujye Lane, Kolkata. Artist Abanindranath Tagore painted the cover during the first printing of Agniveena.
The second edition of Agniveena came out within a year of the first edition. Two thousand copies were printed. The price has been increased by five shekels. The rebel poet was then in prison.
Nazrul's book of poems Poisoned Flute and Broken Song was confiscated by the then British government. Young people eagerly read both books. Some printed forms remained here and there. It was bound and secretly reached the hands of the youth. Nazrul's family also saw two faces of money during the crisis.
Later (1926) DM Library, owned by Gopaldas Majumdar, took over the responsibility of publishing all Nazrul's books. He told Nazrul's close friends that he will be the publisher of all the writings. Books should not be given to others. And he will give the money. But Gopaldas did not keep his word. DM Library did not show interest in accounting despite repeated requests. Nazrul told the matter to Nirmal Chandra, a famous solicitor at that time. A letter was given to DM Library from his office. They were shocked to receive the lawyer's letter. But the mistake that Nazrul made at that time was that he sold the ownership of Agnibeena to them. The poet got two thousand rupees in cash, with which he bought a car.
Agniveena is the best selling book of Nazrul. Not less than 2,200 copies were printed in each edition. At least eighteenth editions of the book were printed until the mid-1960s.
In 1939, Nazrul fell into great financial difficulties. Then he had to borrow four thousand rupees from the then big solicitor Asimkrishna Dutta. No loan is unconditional. In the document signed by both parties, it was written that Asimkrishna will directly collect the money owed by Nazrul from Gramophone Company by writing songs until this money is paid. Within two years, Nazrul was diagnosed with severe brain disease. The countrymen could no longer know whether Nazrul's debt was paid or not. Or how much money Asimakrishna took more.
All are not equal in this world. The printing rights for Nazrul's Maruvaskar book were held by Manoranjan Chakraborty, who owned the Kalika Type Foundry in Calcutta. He returned this right to Nazrul's family by showing compassion for their family.
Source: Kazi Nazrul Islam Memoirs, Muzaffar Ahmad.
