Sutan Takdir Alisjahbana, was born in Natal, North Sumatra on February 11 1908. His family came from Minangkabau who migration in 19th century. He was a founder and editor of Pujangga Baru. He became one of Indonesian literature's guiding lights in its formative years, particularly in the time around independence. Sutan Takdir believed that Indonesia could learn from the values of western civilization and remained a great exponent of modernism throughout his life. A renaissance man himself - the authors of tens book on a range of subjects - he was working on a novel at the time of his death in 1994. The famous novel, Layar Terkembang, showed him as a progressive author.