THE PERFECT MASTER: THE LIFE OF SHIRI MEHER BABA

First edition, first printing. Publisher's original blue cloth with titles in gilt to the upper board and spine. Eleven photographic illustrations across eight pages. A very good copy, the binding square and firm with a little rubbing and bumping to the spine tips and corners, the cloth and gilt bright. The contents, with some spotting to the prelims and closed text block edge, are otherwise clean throughout and without inscriptions or stamps.

The first biography of the Indian silent teacher and spiritual master Meher Baba (1894-1969), written by the British author, drama critic, town planner and economist Charles Purdom (1883-1965). The two first met by chance in 1931, whilst Purdom was on holiday in Coombe Martin, Devon and Baba was on his first visit (of three) to England. On Baba's second visit, in 1932, he asked Purdom, now a devoted follower who had already written two substantial books on the garden city movement, and was currently editor of the literary journal 'Everyman', to write his life. This volume covers Meher Baba's life from 1911–1936. A second volume, 'The God-Man' was published in 1964.