The Author Shamsur Rahman (1929-2006) was born in Dhaka, Bangladesh and educated at Dhaka University. He spent his working life as a journalist, but always found time for his poetic vocation. He published about seventy volumes of verse and a number of prose works, and received the highest literary and state honours of his country, among them the Bangla Academy Prize, the Ekushey Medal and the Independence Award. In 2001 he became the first recipient of the SAARC Award for Lifetime Achievement. He also received several honorary D.Litt degrees, from the universities of Rabindra Bharati, Viswabharati (Santiniketan), Jadavpur and North Bengal.
