Bhabani Bhattacharya was born to Bengali parents in Bhagalpur, India, on November 10, 1906. His father, Pramathanath Bhattacharya, was a member of the judicial services and worked in Bihar and Orissa. He attained his bachelor’s degree in English Literature from Patna University and went to the UK to complete his studies. Due to the inimical attitude of one of his professors, he switched from Literature to History. During his college days in the UK, he was strongly influenced by Marxism and one of his teachers, Harold Laski. He received his master’s degree in 1931 and a doctorate from the University of London in 1934. During his university days, he was active in literary circles, and his work was published in magazines and newspapers, such as the Spectator, the Bookman, and the Manchester Guardian. When he returned to Calcutta, India, he married Salil Mukherji in 1935. In 1949, he moved to the USA to serve in the Indian Embassy in Washington D.C. as a Press Attache. After that, he joined the University of Hawaii as a Visiting Professor and later moved to Seattle to join the University of Washington. He moved permanently to the USA in 1970 and passed away in 1988 of a heart attack.