During the late 1890s there lived in the small village known as Koggala, a boy called Sammy or who was known to the villagers as Opisara Gedera Punchi Mahaththaya. He would grow up to be hailed by eminent scholars like Professor Joseph Needham as the Sage of Koggala. He was the author of books you have read like Madol Duuwa, or heard about, like Gamperaliya and Viragaya. He wrote many more books too, about our culture, our history, about the theory of evolution… Yes, you know him. He is Martin Wickramasinghe.

Born on May 29, 1891 he was the only son in his family. He learnt his alphabet from Andiris Gurunanse, who taught most of the children in the village to read and write. In 1897, the next step in his schooling began when he was sent to the village temple to study under the guidance of Koggala Malalagama Deerananda himi.

Next he attended the school in Unawatuna, Bonavista, to get an English education. He had to leave this school after his father passed away. In 1904 he joined the Sinhala school in Ahangama. After only two years at this new school his education came to a halt and he started to earn a living as a clerk in a shop owned by a businessman called Carolis Silva in Colombo.

This meant saying good-bye to the playful carefree life he had lived in the village, roaming the jungles, rowing in the lake, searching for nuts, madan and mangoes. Even though the harbour, the sea, the breakwater and the zoological section of the museum, in Colombo fascinated him, he started to lead a life of a loner in Colombo, surrounded by his favourite companions – books.

Whenever he had time on his hands, he began to pursue in earnest the questions that had been bothering him from childhood. How did the trees, the mountains, the sea come into being? How did the world begin? Having paid 50 cents to buy the book Human Origins, and impatiently begun to read it he discovered to his dismay that his English knowledge was not enough to understand what the book said. Undeterred, he bought a pocket dictionary and began to read Robinson Crusoe and Gulliver’s Travels. He learnt new words and phrases in English by reading books written by George M Raynolds. He also read Thomas Hardy, Dickens, Tolstoy, Dostoyevsky and Turgenev.

Thus, having improved his English on his own, he took up the books on the theory of evolution, and understood what it meant.

He also read the Sidath Sangarawa, and developed a love for classical Sinhala poetry, especially the Guththila Kavya, to which he would turn, time and time again, as someone seeking the company of a greatly loved friend.

The next step in his career began when he joined the Sinhala paper the Dinamina. On November 30, 1925, he married Kathaluwe Balage Prema de Silva. In 1927 he left Dinamina and joined Lakmina.

Three months later the circulation of Lakmina increased from two hundred copies a month to four thousand a month. He worked from nine in the morning till eight or nine in the night but never felt tired because he loved what he was doing. The love and dedication he felt for the paper was such that for many months he worked without pay. Finally, however he had to resign, give up the house he lived in and move to a single bedroom house with his wife and four children. He earned a living by starting a press of his own.

After some time he was asked once more to take the post of Editor of Dinamina by D R Wijewardena. Knowing that he had to think about the future of the children he accepted the offer. After having worked as an editor for three newspapers for more than fifteen years he retired in 1946 and devoted most of his time to reading and writing.

The subjects Martin Wickramasinghe explored ranged from anthropology, to biology, from social sciences to Buddhism, from philosophy to fine arts. He wrote 14 novels beginning with Leela in 1914 and ending with Bawatharanaya (Siddhartha’s Quest) in 1975. Gamperaliya (The uprooted) was published in 1944, followed by Madolduwa (Mangrove Island) in 1947, Yuganthaya (End of an Era)in 1949, Viragaya (Devoid of Passion) 1956, and Kaliyugaya (Age of Destruction)1957.

Among his eleven collections of short stories are Gehaniyak (A woman), 1924 and Ape Viththi (About Ourselves)1946. He also wrote four dramas Chitra (1940), Mayuri (1944), Vijitha (1953) and Vijitha and Other Plays (1953) as well as on travel, history, three literary biographies, six books on philosophy and other topics, five on evolution and anthropology, and numerous essays of literary criticism. Several of his novels were made into films and teledramas.

He wrote the first book on the social history of Sri Lanka – Purana Sthreenge Anduma, and the first science fiction book for children, Sinhala Vidya Vinoda Katha. He was also a critic, and would go down in literary history as the one who changed the basis of Sinhala literary criticism which had hitherto been modeled on Pali and Sanskrit literature by introducing a more rationale view in judging works of art. He also introduced new words into the Sinhala language.

Martin Wickramasinghe believed that books are the best companions a man could ever have. Some books he says are talkative, some are serious and stiff. But you can easily love all of them. He knew, once you begin to love them you can never let go. Should not we too, make books, our friends?