Mahatma Gandhi

1st edition. Jacket chipped and covered in plastic to prevent further damage. Foxing on edges of pages and a touch on endpages.

The book was published in 1949 the year following Gandhi's assassination and so the authors' memories of him were fresh. It is in three sections, one for each author. The first by Henry Polak covers Gandhi's South African years when Polak was one of his closest friends and colleagues, indeed Polak and his wife lived with Gandhi and his wife for a period early in their marriage and Millie Polak wrote her own memories of the young Gandhi, Mr.Gandhi the Man (published 1931). H N Brailsford, a distinguished journalist and author of left-wing persuasion who also knew Gandhi personally, covers the period between the First and Second World Wars when Gandhi rose to leadership of the Indian independence movement. Lord Pethick-Lawrence, a long time friend of Gandhi, completes the subject's life focusing particularly on the war years towards the end of which he became Secretary of State for India in 1945 to be followed by the Cabinet Mission to India which he led in 1946 in its attempt to bring the various political groups and personalities to an agreement on the form that independence would take. The book combines political history with an appreciation of the extraordinary personality of Gandhi whom all three authors knew. This is a classic of Gandhian literature.