Jibanananda Das was born at Sarbananda Bhavan on February 17, 1899 in Barisal. His family came from Gaodia Village of Bikrampur region of Dhaka district. Jibanananda's father Satyananda Das was a teacher of Brajamohan School, essayist and a publisher. His mother Kusumkumari Das was also a poet. Jibanananda was the eldest son of his parents, and was called by the nickname Milu.

His school life passed by relatively uneventfully. In 1915, he completed his Matriculation exams from Brajamohan School and completed Intermediate from Brajamohan Collegein 1917 with first class.

Later he enrolled in Presidency College, Calcutta and graduated with a BA (Honours) in English Literature in 1919 and MA in 1921. That same year, his first poem appeared in print in the Baishakh issue of Brahmobadi journal.

Jibanananda worked first at City College as a lecturer. After that he worked at Ramjosh College. He was in Brajamohan College 1935 to 1947.

When Deshbandhu Chittaranjan Das died in June 1925, Jibanananda wrote a poem called "Deshbandhu'r Prayan-e", which was published in Bangabani magazine. This poem would later take its place in the collection called "Jhora Palok" (1927). His poetry began to be widely published in various literary journals and little magazines in Kolkata, Dhaka and elsewhere. These included Kallol, perhaps the most famous literary magazine of the era, Kalikalam, Progoti and others. At this time, he occasionally used the surname Dasgupta as opposed to Das.

In 1935, Jibanananda, by now familiar with professional disappointment and poverty, returned to his alma mater Brajamohan College. He joined as a lecturer in the English department. In Calcutta, Buddhadeb Bose, Premendra Mitra and Samar Sen were starting a brand new poetry magazine called Kobita. Jibanananda's work featured in the first issue of the magazine, a poem called "Mrittu'r Aagey".

The poet, however, married Labanyaprabha in 1930. A clash of personalities erupted and Jibanananda gave up hope of a happy married life. The gap with his wife never narrowed.

On October 14, 1954, he was unmindfully crossing a street near Calcutta's Deshapriya Park, when he was hit by a tram; Jibanananda was returning home after his routine evening walk. At that time, he used to reside in a rented apartment on the Lansdowne Road. Seriously injured, he was taken to Shambhunath Pundit Hospital. Poet-writer Sajanikanta Das, who had been one of Jibanananda's fiercest critics, was tireless in his efforts to secure the best treatment for the poet. Nonetheless, the injury was too fatal to redress. Jibanananda died in hospital on October 22, 1954 after eight days of struggle with death. He left behind his wife, a son and a daughter, and the ever-growing band of readers.

His notable poetic works are "Jhora Palok", "Dhushor Pandulipi", "Bonolota Sen", "Mohaprithibi", "Shaat-ti Tarar Timir", "Shrestho Kobita" and "Ruposhi Bangla".