J. D. (James Drummond) Anderson

Born in Calcutta on November 11, 1852, James Drummond Anderson grew up with Bengali before being educated in England. He later joined the Indian Civil Service and served from the 1870s until 1900, much of that time in Assam and Bengal.

Writing as J. D. Anderson, he became known for his close study of Bengali and several languages of northeastern India. He published collections of folk tales and proverbs, along with language studies and practical works such as manuals of Bengali, building a reputation as a careful observer of both speech and culture.

After leaving government service, he returned to Britain and taught Bengali at the University of Cambridge. That mix of administrator, teacher, translator, and linguist gives his books a distinctive character: they are often scholarly, but they also preserve stories, sayings, and everyday language that might otherwise have been lost.