Aronson, A. (ed.);
Dear Mr. Tagore: Ninety-five Letters Written to Rabindranath Tagore from Europe and America, 1912-1941
Visva-Bharati, 2000, 165 pages
ISBN 8175222476, 9788175222472
topics: | biography | letters
Bertrand Russell, 1912 (on Gitanjali): They have some quality different from that of any English poetry - if I knew India perhaps I could find words to describe it, but as it is I can only say that I feel it has a value of its own, which English literature dos not give. Ezra Pound, 1914: The little notice in "Poetry" was nothing. As you can see, the space in that magazine permits but the briefest sort of review. "Poetry" sent your draft with mind on London, but you will find it simpler if I send you the american cheque (as enclosed). I am sorry they send you prose rates, but I have nothing to do with the finances of the magazine. Hermann Keyserling, early 1913: You said you wanted to meet Rodin: he's coming to have tea tomorrow, Tuesday 5 o'clock at the Princess Lichnowsky's, 9 Carlton House Terrace SW [German Embassy]. The princess is my greatest friend, a wonderfully gifted lady, who would love to meet you. There would be nobody except her, yourself, Rodin, myself, and perhaps my sister. I hope you will be able to come. Ernest Rhys, Oct 1913: You have indeed made a difference in our lives -- the very room that know [sic] you is not as it was. William Rothenstein, Nov 15 1913: I open the Times and a shout comes from it - Rabindranath has won the Nobel Prize! I cannot thell you fo the delight this splendid homage gives me - the crown is now set upon your brow. Harriet Monroe (founder-editor, Poetry), 23 nov 1913: Dear Rabibabu: My most ardent felicitations. You may imagine with what joy I received the news at the Tribune office one afternoon, the day before it was published! I think it was a great day also for the world. The highest occidental honor going to an oriental poet is a recognition - is it not? - of the essential brotherhood of man, of the coming together of the races for the beginning of a new age. All this movement back and forth - our travels round the world - must mean thought movement, sprit movement also, the widening of horizons, the obiliteration of boundaries. It was last December that we first printed your poems. This December we shall have some more - the narrative poems which I kept, you remember. We are hastening to print them, because of this Nobel award. POETRY feels very proud indeed of having been the first American magazine to present you to its readers.