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a) Rabindra Nath Tagore, Gitanjali (Song Offerings): A Collection of Prose Translations made by the Author from the Original Bengali, London: Printed at the Chiswick Press for the India Society, 1912

pp. xvi; 64 pages including a tissue-guarded portrait of Tagore in photogravure by William Rothenstein to whom the book is dedicated; original cream silk binding with gilt title on cover and spine
22.5 x 15 x 1 cm

750 copies were printed for the India Society of which only 250 were for sale, according to a note printed on the back of the title page. The title on the title page and the first letter of each stanza printed in red.This extremely rare book was published in November 1912, one year before Tagore was awarded the Nobel Prize. It predates the Macmillan trade edition which came out in 1913. Printed on wove paper with deckled edges

A fine copy with the previous owner's name in ink on front endpaper.

Predominantly due to the publication of Gitanjali, Tagore was honoured with the Nobel Prize in Literature in 1913. When bestowing the award, the evaluators noted that "Tagore’s Gitanjali: Song Offerings (1912), a collection of religious poems, was the one of his works that especially arrested the attention of the selecting critics. Since last year the book, in a real and full sense, has belonged to English literature, for the author himself, who by education and practice is a poet in his native Indian tongue, has bestowed upon the poems a new dress, alike perfect in form and personally original in inspiration. This has made them accessible to all in England, America, and the entire Western world for whom noble literature is of interest and moment."

Upon encountering Tagore via William Rothenstein, W B Yeats was profoundly impressed by the Bengali poet's congruence with his own worldview, both part of "a tradition, where poetry and religion are the same thing". Yeats declared the following after perusing the Gitanjali manuscript, for which he had agreed to compose the introduction:“if someone were to say he could improve this piece of writing, that person did not understand literature.”

b) Translated by Rabindranath Tagore assisted by Evelyn Underhill, One Hundred Poems of Kabir, London: India Society; printed and sold at the Chiswick Press, 1914

pp. xxviii; 67; original cream silk binding with gilt title on cover and spine, printed on wove paper with deckled edges, the title on the title-page and the first letter of each stanza printed in red
8.8 x 5.9 x 0.3 in (22.5 x 15 x 1 cm)

750 copies were printed for the India Society of which only 400 were for sale to the public, according to a note printed opposite the title page.

This rare book was evidently printed in late 1914 [the title page carries that year] but was published in early 1915 since the spine carries the year 1915 (faintly visible). But it still predates the Macmillan trade edition which came out later that year.

The title on the title page and the first letter of each stanza printed in red.

(Set of two)

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