Rabindranath Tagore (Bengali, Ravindranatha Thakura)(1861-1941), Indian poet, philosopher, and Nobel laureate (1913) was the youngest (twelfth) of Debendranath Tagore, a leader of the Brahmo Samaj, and Sarada Devi. With his father away most of the time, support and lessons came from his older siblings. He began to write poetry as a child; his first book appeared when he was seventeen. After a brief stay in England (1878) to study law, he returned to India. Most of his learning was self-taught. He rapidly became the most important and popular author of the colonial era, writing poetry, short stories, essays, novels, and plays.