John Alexander Chapman: Selections from the Works of a Lover of India

John Alexander Chapman was not only a poet, literary critic, and translator, but also the longest-served (1911-1930) Librarian of the Imperial Library. Though his poems are numerous, he could not get recognition as an eminent English poet on account of his penchant for Sakta and other esoteric Indian themes, unintelligible to the ordinary readers. His critical studies of Shakespeare, Wordsworth and other poets made him acceptable to the English readers. The work of Chapman at the Imperial Library laid the foundation of the National Library of India, for he not only started collecting books on Indian languages, but also paid social attention to conservation, cataloguing and other works. He succeeded in shifting the Imperial Library from Metcalfe Hall to Esplanade East for saving the books from Howrah smoke and Calcutta coal gass. A representative selection of his poetry and literary criticism is presented in this John Alexander Chapman : Selections from the Works of a Lover of India.