Basanta Koomer Roy

              1913
Basanta Koomar Roy
of
Calcutta, India
Author of Rabindranath Tagore: The Man and His Poetry

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A Lecturer With a Prophetic Message
Under the Exclusive Management of
LEE KEEDICK, 437 FIFTH AVE., NEW YORK CITY

WILLIAM B. FEAKINS. MANAGER
TIMES BUILDING, NEW YORK



Announcement

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Basanta Koomar Roy was born in a high caste Hindu family.  He was educated in the Universities of Calcutta and Wisconsin.  He took his B. A. degree from the latter.  In the oratorical contest of the Senior Class of 1911 of the University of Wisconsin, Mr. Roy won the first place.

Mr. Roy sacrificed caste and social prestige in coming to America, which he did feeling that by receiving an American education he would be able to serve his Motherland more efficiently.  Having Having lived in India all his life, and so enjoyed the best of facilities for acquiring first hand information, he is most admirably fitted to portray the life, customs and problems of Hindusthan, and by so doing to bring the two great countries, America and India, closer together in sympathy and respect.

Mr. Roy's lectures are loaded with instruction and tempered with humor and are delivered with all the eloquence and feeling of an ardent believer and enthusiastic worker in the cause of human liberty.



Personal Commendations
Professor Edward Alsworth Ross, President, American Sociological Society:

Mr. Roy is a brilliant natural orator with a magnetic personality, a fluent command of choice English, and a thorough knowledge of the people and problems of India.  I do not know where an equal interpreter of India can be found.

Jenkin Lloyd Jones, Director, Abraham Lincoln Center, Chicago, Ill.:

It was my pleasure to hear Basanta Koomar Roy in an address on The Awakening of India.  I was impressed with the earnest and intelligent way in which he presented a side of the Indian question too little understood even in America. * * *  My chief interest lies in the fact that it is instinct with a humanitarian passion, and has a heroic hope for a better day for India.

Professor S. H. Goodnight, Director, Summer Session, the University of Wisconsin:

Mr. Roy delivered lectures for us during the Summer Session of 1912. * * *  He is a fluent speaker and a good thinker, and expresses himself in a forceful and fearless manner.  His earnestness must make an impression upon any audience.

Edward J. Ward, the Social Engineer:

Many strong men and women have spoken before Rochester Social Center audiences, and there have been many important messages given, but no speaker has made a stronger, finer impression than Basanta Koomar Roy of India. * * *  He is indeed A Lecturer with a Prophetic Message.


Mary E. Rathbun, General Secretary, Young Women's Christian Association, Cleveland, Ohio:

* * * One recognizes, from the start, his intellectual grasp of his subject and his fair-minded attitude.

John J. Pettijohn, Secretary, the Department of Instruction by Lectures, the University of Wisconsin:

Mr. Basanta Koomar Roy has lectured for us throughout the State of Wisconsin, and we do not have a single adverse report. * * *  He had a good voice, a fine presence and a keen sense of humor.  He has originality, and the power of a constructive speaker.

Frank H. Severence, Secretary, Buffalo Historical Society:

Your large audience greatly enjoyed your most interesting address on India, given yesterday in our lecture hall.

William Frederic Nutt, Secretary, the Press Club of Chicago:

Mr. Roy lectured before the Press Club of Chicago.  He is an earnest gentleman, thoroughly familiar with his subject.

Sisters of the Humility of Mary of the Academy of Our Lady of Lourdes, Cleveland, Ohio:

Mr. Roy gave an intensely interesting address on India to the pupils of our Institute.  No educator will regret having given him a hearing.

Rev. L. O. Williams, Minister, the Church of the Messiah, Buffalo, N. Y.:

Mr. Roy is a fluent speaker with the gift of magnetism. * * *  He is thoroughly alive with his subject.



Lecture Subjects

Rabindranath Tagore: The Poet and His Personality.
Readings from Tagore and other Great Hindu Poets.
The Awakening of India.
Hindu Literature.
Hindu Manners and Customs and Social Reform.
Education in India—Past and Present.
Woman Suffrage—A plea for world wide emancipation of womanhood.
The Feminist Movement in the Orient.
India and America.
India and Ireland.
The New Orient and the Future of America.
The Great Adjustment—The Outcome of the War.
Human Brotherhood and World Peace.



Press Comments

Basanta Koomar Roy is the recent welcomed biographer of Rabindranath Tagore, * * * a well-known contributor of articles on things Indian to many American magazines and reviews, and a lecturer of much personality and charm.—
The Century Magazine.


Mr. Roy's lecture on Human Brotherhood was, in effect, a plea for an international federation that shall be, not only a court of arbitration, but shall be enabled, under its form of constitution, to enforce its decisions.—
Rochester, N. Y., Herald.


He talks in good English about his own land from the viewpoint of a patriot and scholar.—
Buffalo, N. Y., Express.


Basanta Koomar Roy, in his address on The Awakening of India, held the members of the Downer College Endowment Association under the spell of his wonderful oratory and personality.—
Milwaukee, Wis., Free Press.


At a regular meeting of the Marquette Council the special feature was a lecture on The Awakening of India, by Basanta Koomar Roy. * * *  He made a picturesque appearance in his native costume, and was greeted with great applause as he rounded period after period of thrilling eloquence.—
The Columbian and Western Catholic.


This alert, wide-visioned young man from the Ganges country has a message for those thinking Occidentals who are awaiting the Social Millenium.—
The Wisconsin State Journal, Madison, Wis.




OPINIONS ON MR. ROY'S
Rabindranath Tagore: The Man and His Poetry
(Dodd Mead & Co., New York.)

Tagore's poetry needed precisely the background which this sympathetic sketch brings before Western readers.—Hamilton Wright Mabie, in his introduction to the book.


Mr. Mabie, in a charming introduction, makes Tagore better known to us, a task which is finished in detail by the author, who also gives new translations of many of Tagore's poems which will be of great interest and pleasure to all lovers of the East and its learning.—
The American Club Woman.


To read this biography is to feel as if one had conversed with the poet, himself, upon the subjects nearest to his heart.—
The Post, Pittsburgh, Pa.

This biography of Tagore is the work of a critic, a thinker, and a master of English prose.

Francis Grierson.


Mr. Roy has been conscious of the difficulties in interpreting the East to the West, and has maintained a critical poise throughout his book.—
The Dial.


Extremely interesting as bringing to the knowledge of western nations the work of a wonderfully gifted man.—
The Herald, New York City.


Written with sympathy and with knowledge of the family and people among whom Tagore passed his early years.—
The Nation.

I am now reading your very interesting life of Tagore with real delight.

John McCormack, the Irish tenor.


Basanta Koomar Roy has spread his fame in this country on the lecture platform. * * *  Sympathetic is the obvious word to describe Mr. Roy's treatment of his subject. * * *  Of particular interest is a discussion on Tagore's place in Bengali literature.—
The Springfield Republican.


Mr. Roy's work is agreeably and pleasantly written.  The fact that the author is a Hindu himself gives his work a peculiar charm.—
The Bookman.


Mr. Roy's personal acquaintance with Tagore and his ability to make his own translations from the Bengali give an unexpected variety and interest to the work.—
The American Review of Reviews.


This book is peculiarly authoritative, for written by a fellow countryman, it gives the viewpoint of the East.—
The Independent.


Mr. Roy's book is more than an estimate of Tagore's genius as a poet.  It portrays in a most interesting manner his development from childhood and the influence which fashioned his gifted and sensitive soul.—
The Toronto Globe.


The book is illustrated with striking photograph portraits.—
The Courant, Hartford, Conn.