Personality (1917) is a collection of six lectures delivered by Tagore on a visit to the United States of America between September 1916 and January 1917, sponsored by the Pond Lyceum. They are a structured exposition of his thoughts on different subjects,  as he muses on the reasons for the existence for art, the reality of the world, and the role of women in a changing world. About the Author One of India’s most cherished figures, Rabindranath Tagore (1861-1914) was a novelist, short-story writer, poet, essayist, painter, educationist and thinker, the first non-European to be awarded the Nobel Prize for literature in 1913. He modernised Bengali literature, moving it away from its rigid classical form and strict linguistic structure. Known for works such as Gitanjali (Song Offerings), Gora (Fair-Faced) and Ghare-Baire (The Home and the World,) his novels, short stories and verse are considered part of the greatest of world literature, famous for their exploration of the political and the personal. He also wrote the national anthem of India, Jana Gana Mana, and of Bangladesh, Amar Shonar Bangla.