Indian Society of London would publish Gitanjali was decided at the felicitation of Tagore at Trocadero Restaurant and the Poet Yeats would write its introduction. Yeats went to Normandy in France with the edited manuscript and planned to write the introduction at his leisure time.Rabindranath intimated this information to Ajit kumar on 2nd Aug.Gitanjali would be first published by India Society and Yeats wrote its introduction. On 7th Sep Yeats wrote Rothenstein;
"You will, I think, find it emphatic enough ... .In the first little chapter I have given what Indians said to me about Tagore -- their praise of him and their description of his life. That I am anxious about....some fact may be given wrongly ,...I think it might be well if somebody compiled a sort of 'Who's Who' paragraph of Tagore, and put after the introduction a string of dates,saying when he was born, when his chief works were published . I give no facts except those in the quoted conversation,"
This was not done and some wrong information floated in some foreign news paper after Rabindranath won the Nobel prize. Some also criticised the introduction and some omitted the introduction while translating in other languages.
The manuscript of Gitanjali was sent to the press on 9th Sep (Mon 24 Bhadra). Rabindranath took the charge of going through the 'proof' in consultation with Yeats.While doing the work he changed a few words. One of such changes came to knowledge from the letter written by Yeats dated 9 Jan 1913;
"The other day I started to read out No.52 to a friend. When I came to the last paragraph I was most sorrowful to find the maginificent ' no more coiness ( coyness) and sweetness of demeanour ' was changed and the whole poem half ruined. I fell on Rothenstein at once and accused the Fox Strangways ( Secretary of India Society-- by author) of it. He defends Fox Strangways but I do not believe him. .. Do please put back old sentence, which suggested the very woman, in the new edition."Rabindranath, on his usual courtesey sake, wrote to Rothenstein on 14th Feb ;
" Mr. Yeats is not satisfied with some of the corrections that have been made without his knowledge. I have promised him to submit to him the proofs of the second edition of Gitanjali."
The First edition of Gitanjali, published by India Society came to light on 1 nov (Fri 16 Kartik).
