| Description | This series consists of records gathered by Leonard Elmhirst relating to the Indian poet and philosopher Rabindranath Tagore. Materials include poems, essays, speeches, diaries and art works. There are transcriptions of Leonard Elmhirst's interviews with Tagore dispersed throughout the series. There are also scattered photographs, pamphlets, printed records, and a lock of Tagore's beard. Letters and other Tagore memorabilia are preserved carefully in scrapbooks included in this series. Tagore's illustrated letters discuss his followers, travel, Indian and international politics, art, spirituality and religion. Of special interest are letters and papers written while Tagore and Leonard Elmhirst were travelling together in China, Italy, and South America. There are also letters from the poet Xu Zhimo (Hsu Tsemou). Records of travels in Italy record Tagore's meetings with Mussolini, including commentaries on the nature of the politician and his politics. Other travel related records include transcriptions of interviews and speeches given by Tagore while on a trip to the USSR in 1930. Similarly, there are records of Tagore's travels in Argentina including many letters from and to Victoria Ocampo with whom Leonard maintained a lifelong correspondence. Ocampo's personal letters to Leonard in the 1950's record her work publishing the literary journal SUR, discuss Tagore, and include observations on Argentinian politics. There are also letters of Ocampo mentioning the Peron government, her arrest by the Peronistas, and her thoughts about Eva Peron.
Later correspondence is with Indian biographers, including officials at Visva-Bharati. There is also correspondence with American scholars interested in Tagore. The series includes records of the publication of books on Tagore, including Leonard's 1961 book 'Rabindranath Tagore: Pioneer in Education.'
Records also include information on the Tagore Festival organised by the Dartington College of Arts in 1976. |