Gitanjali by Tagore Rabindranath, Signed (2 results)

First Bolpur edition of this collection of prose translated by Tagore from the original Bengali, largely for which he received the Nobel Prize in Literature. Octavo, original cloth with gilt titles to the spine and front panel, engraved frontispiece portrait of Tagore. Boldly signed by Rabindranath Tagore on the half-title page. Introduction by W.B. Yeats. In near fine condition. Rare and desirable signed. Bengali poet and musician Rabindranath Tagore modernized and reshaped Bengali literature and music throughout the early 19th and late 20th centuries as a leading figure in the Contextual Modernist movement of West India. In 1913, Tagore became the first non-European to win the Nobel Prize for Literature, largely for the English Gitanjali.

Hardcover. Condition: Good. G. Not a first edition but a 1919 reprint courtesy of Macmillan London. Corners bumped, rubbing to edges, mild general evidence of handling and wear. Rubbing becomes fraying at corner tips esp. bottom front. Pushing and rubbing to spine crown and heel. Age together with rubbing at spine corners has resulted in splits and a bit of tearing to the blue cloth thereat. Internally, hinges fore and aft are partly split, affording peeps of the mull; binding somewhat shaken. Small bookseller's sticker to bottom corner of front pastedown (W.H. Smith in Paris). A pencilled notation "LCrit0200" to top of ffep. Some toning to front and end matter, and the glassine protective sheet for the frontispiece has left a perfect shadow in dark toning to the title page. There seems to be a single instance of underlining on p. xiv of Yeats' Introduction, in neat and rather faint colored pencil, to seven consecutive words. Some of the verse numerators are circled in plain pencil: 20, 28, 37, 43, and 48; possibly more although we noticed no others. Otherwise, pages are generally quite clean and clear. SIGNED by Tagore in English on the frontispiece: "Rabindranath Tagore / Oct. 11, 1920 / Paris". At this point in October 1920, Tagore was spending some time in Paris before embarking for America. A previously appreciated, century-old copy of a true literary masterpiece by the first non-Western recipient of the Nobel Prize for literature. Signed by Author.