Gandhiji: His Life and Work.
[Roosevelt, Eleanor]. Ghandiji: His Life and Work. Published on his 75th Birthday, October 2, 1944. (Bombay: Karnatak Publishing House, 1944).
Thick 8vo.; color illustrations affixed to colored pages throughout, also photographic illustrations; library marks on title page and spine, latter nearly indecipherable; black and red stenciled endpapers with a spinning wheel motif; brown burlap stamped in dark brown; lightly worn, shaken.
First edition, deluxe issue, 250 copies of this copiously illustrated festschrift (this is copy #151). Contributions by Indian political and literary figures; brief introductions by Albert Einstein and Pearl S. Buck. Nehru contributes the first article. A trade issue was published in 1945; this is only the second copy of the deluxe issue we have seen. Inserted is a brief description of the book from the sale of John Roosevelt’s library on November 6, 1970.
A charming presentation copy, inscribed: To Mrs. Franklin D. Roosevelt with the compliment from [sic] Jawaharlal Nehru. Nehru probably gave this book to Eleanor sometime in the early 50s, either when he visited her in Hyde Park or when she visited him in India. Nehru made quite an impression on the First Lady, who wrote about his visit in On My Own:
A striking figure in his long, dark coat and white trousers bound tightly at the ankles, the Prime Minister seemed delighted to see the young people and after luncheon sat cross-legged in the middle of the living room floor to talk to them for a long time. He appeared to be just as interested in asking them questions as they were in hearing his views, and it was an afternoon I will long remember. (p. 26)
The positive impression lasted, and Eleanor recalls that it was Nehru’s kind invitation that day that led to her decision to visit the East:
I had received a number of invitations to visit various countries. One was extended by Prime Minister Nehru, on the afternoon that he sat on the floor of the living room in my Hyde Park cottage and chatted for several hours with the young people. In the midst of some discussion of conditions in India as compared with those in the United States, he turned to me.
“I would like to invite you to come to India,” he said. “You would be the guest of the government and you would see these things for yourself.”
“I am grateful for the invitation,” I replied, “but I am not planning to make any journeys for a while. Later, I would very much like to see India.”
The invitation stuck in my mind and, as the Assembly [the United Nations General Assembly] was ending its sessions in Paris early in 1952, I decided the time might be right. “Instead of going back to New York as usual,” I remarked to my secretary, “why not go home the long way --- around the world? We’ve already got a good start.”
So Mr. Nehru renewed his invitation...and I decided to go. (pp. 96-97)
In India Nehru treated Mrs. Roosevelt like royalty, turning the state guest house over to her. Eleanor wrote from India to a New York friend, saying about Nehru: “He is a remarkable man. He bears the burdens, which are almost overwhelming, in a calm and courageous manner” (Eleanor: The Years Alone, by Joseph Lash, NY: Norton, 1972, p. 201). It may have been Nehru’s gift of this book that inspired Mrs. Roosevelt to visit the site of Ghandi’s cremation, the Rajghat, where she left a wreath in his honor.
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