The Story of My Experiments with Truth.

GANDHI, Mohandas K. (Mahatma).

Item Number: 24096

Ahmedabad: Navajivan Press, 1927-29.

First editions of the Gandhi’s classic autobiography. Octavo, 2 volumes. Frontispiece of the author to both volumes. In very good condition with some toning to the spine. First editions are extremely rare.

"My purpose," Mahatma Gandhi writes of this book, "is to describe experiments in the science of Satyagraha, not to say how good I am." Satyagraha, Gandhi's nonviolent protest movement (satya = true, agraha = firmness), came to stand, like its creator, as a moral principle and a rallying cry; the principle was truth and the cry freedom. The life of Gandhi has given fire and fiber to freedom fighters and to the untouchables of the world: hagiographers and patriots have capitalized on Mahatma myths. Yet Gandhi writes: "Often the title [Mahatma, Great Soul] has deeply pained me. . . . But I should certainly like to narrate my experiments in the spiritual field which are known only to myself, and from which I have derived such power as I possess for working in the political field."