Presentation copy from George Harrison to Ravi Shankar, Christmas 1966

The I Ching or Book of Changes. Translated by Richard Wilhelm and Cary F. Baynes, with foreword by Carl Jung. London: Routledge and Kegan Paul Ltd, 1965.

The ultimate New-Age I Ching—a presentation copy from the Beatles's George Harrison to Ravi Shankar, inscribed:"To Raviji—with much love and thanks," signed by Harrison and dated Christmas 1966. Harrison first met Shankar in London in 1966, and soon after traveled to India to study sitar with the famous Indian musician. It was the beginning of a long friendship and artistic collaboration, which inspired some of the Beatles's most iconic songs, brought Indian Classical music to a much wider international audience, and influenced the trajectory of pop music writ large. The experience encouraged Harrison's interest not only in Indian music, but in Eastern philosophy more generally—explaining perhaps the choice of this translation of the Chinese philosophical classic, the I Ching, with a preface by the famous psychoanalyst Carl Jung, who would appear on the cover of the Beatles's album Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band in the following year.

Two volumes, octavo. Original publisher's cloth with dust-jackets (jackets chipped). Custom box. Provenance: both volumes inscribed to Ravi Shankar from George Harrison, dated 1966.