I had read somewhere that T.S. Eliot had requested that no “life of the poet” be written for him after his passing. Biographers and literary historians interpreted this to mean that Eliot did not wish for his life to narrativized as merely that of a poet. So, it was acceptable to write a biography of the man, as he lived his life, earned his bread and worked on his craft.

For me, reading biographies of writers and painters, musicians and actors, changed for good after this. Beyond what someone creates, beyond what is printed as their work, there is so much more to the lives of artists that make up who they are. The age of reading literature only through the published word, or regarding art as only that which hangs framed on a wall has long gone, and we know now that questions of readership, patronage, personal struggles, all play a significant part in our understanding not just of individuals but of the discourses within which they are situated.

Having access to someone’s archive can add significant nuance to how we read them. The profusion of biographical information on Rabindranath Tagore, reflected in letters, personal effects, photographs and manuscripts, offer layers of understanding that would not be available if we regard only the published works. But Rabindranath is a bit of an exception in the history of Bangla literature; not everyone is quite so fortunate. The culture of building personal archives has not been our strong suit in this part of the world, although of late, there have been some efforts on the part of both institutions and families. I have been fortunate to see from up close and work on a few such archives at the School of Cultural Texts and Records at Jadavpur University and the Hitesranjan Sanyal Memorial Archives at the Centre for Studies in Social Sciences, Calcutta. There is always a perpetual sense of urgency about these projects, as people work on meagre resources against the ticking clock.

The archive of literature may, however, intersect with the digital in different ways. At the most basic level, the physical material (manuscripts, letters, photographs) may be photographed to create digital surrogates. These surrogates, unless decoded for the computer, do not become machine-readable. Metadata, that is data about the data, must be typed in painstakingly, so that future users are able to find their way around the documents.

The secondary level is open to interpretation. Some may choose to make the data itself machine-readable through optical character recognition or similar processes. This enables digital analysis of texts. Perhaps the most substantial example of this in the world is the Bichitra project, spearheaded by Prof. Sukanta Chaudhuri. Digital Humanities projects such as these can create tools that enable experts in the field to bring large quantities of data under their analytical lens through machine-reading.

Depending on the nature of the material, archives may also choose to create publicly accessible repositories that offer an easy entry point into the life and work of an author. The Samaresh Basu archive stands as a fine example of that, with careful, thoughtful curation both at the level of material selection and presentation. Apart from the archival material, which includes, photographs, manuscripts, letters and memorabilia, the archivists have taken the trouble to create useful bibliographies and a timeline, allowing even the lay user to get a clear understanding of this towering literary figure.

Speaking for myself, the achievement of the present archive can be measured in two ways. The first is on its own terms, that is, whether the selection of material, curation and presentation is making for an informative and easy experience for users of all persuasions. Secondly, I would hope that the effort put in by the author’s family serves as a model for other similar projects. It is only when stakeholders come together that such dreams can be achieved, and building archives for public consultation (specialized and non-specialzied use) goes a long way in sustaining literary legacies.