The Gardener.

TAGORE, Rabindranath.

Item Number: 130374

London: Macmillan and Co, 1918.

First edition, early printing in English of Tagore’s collection of lyrics of love and life, translated by the author from the original Bengali. Octavo, original cloth with gilt titles to the spine and front panel, gilt ruled, frontispiece portrait of Tagore at age 16 by Gaganendra Nath Tagore after a drawing by Jyotirindra Tagore. Boldly signed by by the author on the front free endpaper, “Rabindranath Tagore L’Aula L’ Univerite de Geneve Mar 5th, 21.” In near fine condition, bookplate to the front pastedown. Rare and desirable. Books signed by Tagore are uncommon.

Bengali polymath Rabindranath Tagore reshaped Bengali literature and music with Contextual Modernism in the late 19th and early 20th centuries. Commonly referred to as "The Bard of Bengal", Tagore became the first non-European to win the Nobel Prize in Literature in 1913. A prolific writer, his novels, stories, songs, dance-dramas, and essays spoke to topics both political and personal. Most of the lyrics in The Gardener appeared previously in Tagore's best-known work Gitanjali.