BAPU'S LETTERS TO MIRA (1924-1948)

First edition, first printing. Signed by the author 'Mirabehn'. Publisher's original khadi cloth backed blue paper covered boards with titles in black to the upper board and spine. Portrait frontispiece and two further photographic plates. Illustrations within the text. Errata slip at p.67. A very good copy, the binding square and firm with some bumping and mild wear to the tips of the darkened spine and corners. The boards are a little marked. The contents, lightly spotted to the endpapers are otherwise clean throughout.

Inscribed in blue ink on the front endpaper "To Lucy / with love / from / Mira / (Madeleine) / Pashulok / India / 17.11.49". Madeleine Slade (1892-1982), British born daughter of Sir Edmond Slade (Rear-Admiral RN, Director of Naval Intelligence), was a close associate of Gandhi and a determined campaigner for Indian Independence (meeting with Winston Churchill and Eleanor Roosevelt among others). Her first meeting with Gandhi, after a year of correspondence and 'preparation', was in November 1925, when he adopted her into his family as a "daughter", and gave her the name "Mirabehn" (shortened to Mira). There followed a life devoted to human development and the advancement of Gandhi's principles. As a result she was jailed several times, sharing a cell with Gandhi's wife Kasturba in 1932, and imprisoned with Gandhi himself, 1942-1944 in the Agha Khan Palace jail, where Kasturba died, as did Mahadev Desai. Despite these struggles and uncertainties, she managed to preserve around 650 items of correspondence, 386 of which are printed here: Gandhi's letters to her. The first printing was issued in August 1949 an edition of 5000 copies. Inscribed copies are uncommon.