A notebook belonging to legendary Indian poet and Nobel laureate Rabindranath Tagore, containing poems and drafts of his work, will go under the hammer here at a Sotheby's auction next month.
The previously unknown manuscript notebook dates back to 1928 and contains 12 poems and lyrics for as many songs in Bengali, including some heavily amended drafts of Tagore's subsequently published works.
The poems included in the collection celebrate nature, love and life. The auction will be held on December 13 and the notebook is estimated to fetch $150,000-250,000. Tagore had presented the notebook to a family friend and early patron in the mid-1930s, through whose family it has descended.
"An astonishingly prolific author who produced a strikingly diverse output that spanned numerous literary genres, Tagore is seen as one of the great literary giants of his time," Sotheby's said.
Two of the song lyrics in the notebook were later included in the dance drama 'Chitranggada', first performed in 1892 and then modified and extended in 1936. Three other song lyrics were included in Tagore's three-volume song collection entitled 'Gitabitan', published in 1931.
Heavily emended and containing Tagore's inimitable artistic deletions, one of these songs 'Mon je bale chini chini' is of particular significance, the auction house said. Each of the poems in the notebook is a draft version of piece that was later published.
Twelve of the poems went on to be included in a collection entitled 'Mohua' in 1929. The friendship between the Tagore family and that of the present owner of the notebook dates back to the mid-1800s. The notebook was brought to America in the 1950s.