 He had also obtained a huge collection of ancient manuscripts ("puthi") in Bengali, Sanskrit and Oriya, mostly from street-vendors and facilitated University of Calcutta to initiate its library in the Bengali Department.Basu started his literary career with poems and novels, but soon became extensively involved in editing.Basu edited multiple journals—the vernacular monthlies of "Tapasvini" and "Bharat", "Sahitya Parisad Patrika", the mouthpiece of the Bangiya Sahitya Parishad and "Kayastha", the publication of the Kayastha Sabha (which he had founded).