Letters to Emilie Schenkl, 1934-1942 Collected Works

Netaji Subhas Chandra Bose was India's foremost militant nationalist, just as Gandhi and Nehru were its pacifist and moderate nationalists. His love life has remained a carefully guarded secret. This volume reveals Bose's relationship with the Austrian he married in Europe.;Perhaps the least-known of Netaji Subhas Chandra Bose's many-sided personality is his love for Emilie Schenkl, his Austrian wife. Bose met Emilie Schenkl in June 1934 in Vienna, developed a close relationship during his forced European exile, secretly married her in December 1937, and had a daughter, Anita, in November 1942. This special volume of the "Collected Works" illuminates the human and emotional aspects of Netaji's many-splendoured life.;In his first letter to Emilie Schenkl on 30 November 1934 Subhas Chandra Bose wrote, "I am always a bad correspondent - but not a bad man I hope." This "bad correspondent" nevertheless managed to write with unerring frequency to the woman he loved whether he was in prison or hospital, home interned or in the midst of whirlwind political tours. One hundred and sixty-two of his letters written between 1934 and 1942 are being published for the first time in this volume along with 18 of Emilie Schenkl's letters that have survived.;This volume of hitherto unrevealed letters represents an opportunity for readers to understand a hidden or underplayed dimension of India's foremost militant nationalist.