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Charles Freer Andrews, The Tagore Birthday Book: Selected from the English Works of Rabindranath Tagore, London: Macmillan and Co., 1928

pp. xix + 321 [unpaginated] + 4 pages of the publisher’s other Tagore books at the end. With colour frontispiece and 3 black and white plates; original striped cloth with gilt leather title ticket pasted on spine. Top edge gilt.
19 x 13 x 3 cm

Signed and inscribed by Tagore on front free endpaper: "To Her Excellency / Lady Irwin / in memory of her visit / to Santiniketan / Rabindranath Tagore / Santiniketan / 20 January / 1929".

Signed book by Tagore, presented to Vicerine. Viceroy Lord Irwin and Lady Irwin visited Santiniketan on 17 December 1928. The book must have been sent across to Lady Irwin by Tagore as a memento the following month.

Charles Freer Andrews (1871–1940) was an Anglican priest, educator, and social reformer. Known for his close association with Tagore and his significant role in the Indian independence movement, Andrews was deeply influenced by Tagore's ideas and philosophy. His friendship with Tagore was marked by mutual respect and a shared commitment to social justice and education.

The author thanks his young companions for their help in organising a Birthday Book of Rabindranath Tagore. It highlights the deep religious significance of Tagore's natural imagery, which often evokes human emotions such as joy, pain, or longing. The first personal pronoun in Tagore's translation of Kabir's Poems refers to the soul, while the second person refers to God. The border between human and divine love is often blurred, and the use of capital letters when referring to the divine name is avoided.

The preface also mentions the monsoon in Northern India, which breaks the long drought and brings tender, thoughtful imaginations of sadness. The poet's birthday, according to the Western calendar, falls on 6th May. At Santiniketan, children celebrate it with music, drama, and song. The author wishes the book could be widely used to spread sunshine and bring the East and West closer together in love.