Bibhutibhushan Banerjee had been writing short stories which appeared in Pravasi since 1922 but those did not attract much notice before the publication of his first novel Pather PAnchali (A Pedestrian’s Rhymes, 1929) in the pages of the newly started magazine Vichitra, with sri Upendranath Ganguli, a member of the old Bhagalpur group and author of the novel RAjpath (1925) and other novels and short stories as the editor. This masterpiece of Banerjee and its sequel Aparajita (1932), based on the author’s own life-story, are written with a rare sincerity and fulness of the heart that never fail to strike a note of nostalgic sympathy in the emotional reader. But some of the stories that Banerjee had written earlier show him at his best.
Among these may be mentioned Umarani (first published in 1922) and Pui-mancha (The Kitchen Garden Scaffolding; first published 1925). These and his later short stories are collected in more than a dozen volumes, such as Meghmallar (1931), Mauriphul (1932), Jatra Badal (1934), etc. Banerjee’s novels are not a few and they include besides those already mentioned: Dristipradeep (The Look- a lamp, 1935), Aaranyak (The Wild, 1949), Adarsa Hindu Hotel (1940), Bipiner Samsar (Bipin’s Home, 1941), Devayan (spirit’s Path, 1944), Icchamati (1949) etc. Banerjee was a lover of the flora. He liked the hilly and wild land and his love is fully reflected in Aaranyak.
He was romantic and lyrical by temperament and had a definite bias towards the occult and the spiritual. This is noticeable in his later novels.