Life As An Editor
Devan started as a Sub-Editor at Ananda Vikatan in 1933. After Kalki Krishnamurthy left Vikatan, worked as Managing Editor from 1942 to 1957.
During this time, he wrote about 20 serials, more than 500 stories, articles and travelogues. A common feature in all his works was his gentle sense of humour. He was a very popular writer and stories abound of how, when a new issue of Ananda Vikatan came out, everyone in the family would fight to get hold of the copy first.
Devan worked under famous writers like Kalki Krishnamurthy and S. S. Vasan. It was his wish that his stories get published as books, but sadly this did not happen in his lifetime, due to the nature of his contract with Vikatan.
During this time, he also served as Chairman of the Tamil Writers' Guild twice, and helped to promote Tamil literature.
Devan was the editor of Ananda Vikatan until his death in 1957. In his short life, he experimented with different types of writing - travelogues, detective novels, articles, short stories, travelogues, current affairs. Devan's books are a joy to read even today, when social values and techniques in fiction writing are so different.
About ten of Devan's writings were also dramatised by several Tamil drama troupes, even during his lifetime. He himself wrote most of the dialogues for the plays. More recently, some of his works like Thuppariyum Sambu, Sriman Sudharsanam and Mister Vedhantham were made into television serials also. Only one of his novels, gOmathiyin kAdhalan, was made into a movie, starring T. R. Ramachandran and Savithri.
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