The stories in this book tell us about some notable Westerners of undying fame, who on different occasions 
came in close contact with Swami Vivekananda and left imprints of their indelible memories of that association. 
In addition, the collection displays three phases of the Swami’s life in the West. First, before he appeared at the 
religious congress; second, while leaving his enduring mark at the Chicago Parliament of Religions in 1893 and 
then moving around places in the US, and a little later in Europe, with his abiding spirituality and brilliance; and 
lastly, when he began to fulfil his role as the first exponent of Vedanta in the West. Each story here is testimony 
to what Romain Rolland felt long back: “It was impossible to imagine him in the second place. Wherever he went 
he was the first. …Everybody recognized in him at sight the leader, the anointed of God, the man marked with
 the stamp of the power to command.”