This short account of Swami Vivekananda, the Vedantist who brought Hinduism to America, focuses on the years 1893 to 1897. After a famous speech at the World’s Columbian Exposition of 1893, Vivekananda promoted his religious beliefs and practices by lecturing extensively across the United States, teaching and attracting devotees, producing a wealth of publications and tracts on Hinduism, encouraging vegetarianism, writing the first book on yoga to appear in America and so on, for a new and enthusiastic audience.

This book draws together letters, memoirs and other writings from a wide array of his admirers (and some detractors), including Ella Wheeler Wilcox, Annie Besant, Emma Calvé and Caroline K. Sherman. Also included are contemporary newspaper reports and commentary.

There are letters and a lecture by Vivekananda 'Hinduism as a Religion', which stand in for the vast array of his substantial writings. Similarly, the book utilizes personal and public materials from these few years of the Swami’s life, to provide a gentle and general introduction to his enduring impact on religious life in America.

Vivekananda’s influence in both America and India has been long and enduring, Gandhi drew inspiration from his famous forebear, saying in 1921, ‘I… pay homage and respect to the revered memory of Swami Vivekananda... I have gone through his works very thoroughly, and after having gone through them, the love that I had for my country became a thousand-fold.’

William James, who met and admired Vivekananda wrote after his death: ‘The paragon of all monistic systems is the Vedanta philosophy of Hindustan, and the paragon of Vedantist missionaries was the late Swami Vivekananda.’