The first Asian writer to win the Nobel Prize for Literature, Rabindranath Tagore mesmerized the world with his spiritual insights and finely wrought writings. This comprehensive and engaging anthology gathers his polymathic achievement, from the extraordinary humanity of The Post Officer to memoirs, letters, essays and conversations, short stories, extracts from the celebrated novel The Home and the World, poems, songs, epigrams, and paintings. This inspired collection of works by one of this century's most profound writers in an essential guide for readers seeking to understand Indian literature, culture, and wisdom, and the perfect reintroduction of Tagore's magnificence to American readers.

""The entire breadth of [Tagore's] richly hued oeuvre is showcased in all its emotional resonance and artistic greatness. Reading Tagore is not only illuminating but deeply moving."" --Donna Seaman

""In common with thousands of his countrymen I owe much to one who by his poetic genius and singular purity of life has raised India in the estimation of the world."" --Mahatma Gandhi

""The entire Indian civilization spoke through poetic wisdom of Rabindranath Tagore."" --Deepak Chopra

""[Tagore's] lyrics...display in their thought a world I have dreamed of all my life long."" --W.B. Yeats

""Tagore, who was a great master of words, seems to me have spoken about language, and its connection with social and political life, with accurate insight, and what he said has great interest for us today."" --Isaiah Berlin