Quest for Coomaraswamy: A life in the Arts

Ananda Kentish Coomaraswamy (AKC) began his professional life asa potentially brilliant scientist at the dawn of the 20th century and died as a distinguished though controversial metaphysician in 1947, less than a month after the British retreated from the divided Indian subcontinent. In between, he was an omnivorous pedagogue who explored almost every branch of the humanities – most notably the arts and crafts of South Asia, both as a scholar and as a collector. This eminently readable bio...