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Lot #371
Rabindranath Tagore Autograph Letter Signed

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Estimate: $1500+
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Description

Bengali poet, playwright, philosopher, and author (1861-1941) who became the first non-European to win a Nobel Prize (Literature) in 1913. ALS, one page, 4.5 x 7, May 20, 1913. Addressed from his London residence at 37 Alfred Place West, South Kensington, a handwritten letter sent to Countess Martinengo, in full: "I am very sorry to say that I have an engagement in Oxford on May 23rd and it is not possible for me to accept your invitation to lunch on the same day. Thanking you for your kindness." In fine condition.

On November 13, 1913, less than six months after writing this letter, Tagore learned that he had become the first non-European and the first lyricist to win the Nobel Prize in Literature, with the Swedish Academy selecting him ‘because of his profoundly sensitive, fresh and beautiful verse, by which, with consummate skill, he has made his poetic thought, expressed in his own English words, a part of the literature of the West.’

Evelyn Lillian Haseldine Carrington, Countess Martinengo-Cesaresco (1852-1931), was a well-known writer on folksong at the end of the 19th / early 20th century. Her numerous essays on Italian, Greek, and other song traditions were collected into a single volume in 1886, which was then republished in 1914 as a cheap ‘Everyman’s Library’ hardback, making it one of the most widely distributed works of folk-song scholarship in the period.

Auction Info

  • Auction Title: Fine Autograph and Artifacts Featuring Art and Literature
  • Dates: #645 - Ended October 12, 2022





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