The Poems of Edwin Arnold: containing The Light of Asia; Pearls of the Faith, or Islam's Rosary; and The Indian Song of Songs to which is added Indian Poetry from the Sanskrit of the Gita Govinda of Jayadeva; two books from "The Iliad of India" (Mahabharata); "Proverbial Wisdom" from the Shlokas of the Hitopadesa, and other oriental poems ( HC, with first two pages loose, $2.50)
Gosh, I hope I copied all those titles correctly. I just know spell-check won't be any good here.!
Arnold was an interesting fellow. He was born in England, moved to India to become a college principal (and was there during the Mutiny of 1857), went back to England (where it was probably less stressful), and became the editor of the Daily Telegraph. For the last years of his life he lived in Japan.
While he was the editor for the Daily Telegraph, he arranged for Stanley's African expedition to follow the course of the Congo River. Stanley said "thank you" to Arnold by naming a mountain after him. Arnold also was the first to have the idea of building a railroad across Africa.
It is mostly for his poetry that he is remembered. Here you can read his most famous poem, the Light of Asia. His aim was to write an Indian epic to introduce the west to the life and teachings of Buddha. His poem became a best seller, but was criticized by Buddhists for being grossly inaccurate, and criticized by Christians for saying Buddha compared to Christ. (Hey, you can't win for trying, can you!) Look for this oddity in the poetry section.
