Autobiography of a Yogi, 5th edition, 1954, Antonia Brico gift inscription to Yehudi Menuhin

Autobiography of a Yogi, Paramahansa Yogananda. Self-Realization Fellowship. Fifth edition, 1954. Preface by W. Y. Evans-Wentz. Good hardcover, no dustjacket. This edition of Autobiography of a Yogi was a gift from Antonia Brico to Yehudi Menuhin, an American-born British citizen considered by many to be one of the greatest violinists of the 20th century. Presentation inscription: “To Yehudi Menuhin from Antonia Brico. Aug. 22, ’55.” Some stains and discolorations on cloth cover. Some wear to top and bottom of spine and board corners. Bumped corner of front top right corner of front board. Tanned edges of pages. Pages lightly tanned. No pencil or ink markings on pages.

Brico was the first world-renowned woman symphony orchestra conductor. She met then Swami Yognanda in 1927, attended his lectures in Buffalo, New York, and became his student. Songs of My Heart (formerly Chants and Prayers: The Voice of Paramahansa Yogananda) includes the recording of Rimsky Korsakov’s “Song of India,” which is played by Yogananda on tablas and Antonia Brico on harmonium. After the guru’s passing, Brico conducted a memorial concert honoring Paramahansaji.

In the early 1950s she was the music teacher of a promising young pianist, thirteen-year-old Judy Collins. She was stunned when Judy decided to give up classical music to become a folk singer. When Collins was in her forties, Brico introduced her to Self-Realization Fellowship, through which she became a student of Sri Yogananda’s teachings.

Yehudi Menuhin collaborated with Ravi Shankar in 1967 to produce an album of Indian and Western classical music titled West Meets East, which won a Grammy Award for Best Chamber Music Performance in 1968. And, as another aside, it was Ravi Shankar who gave George Harrison a copy of Autobiography of a Yogi. Shankar said, “I gave him his first copy…and that was where his interest in Vedic culture and Indian-ness began. To me, he was something like a son.” Harrison’s response when he received the book: “I looked at the cover and Yogananda just zapped me with his eyes, and that was it–it was all over!” He was later responsible for including all four gurus of Self-Realization Fellowship on the cover of the Beatles album Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band.