Rudyard Kipling - Sahib Edition Vol. X (Poems & Ballads, ca.1911, Collier)

Rudyard Kipling

Published by P. F. Collier & Son, 1911

About this Item

A handsome early volume from The Works of Rudyard Kipling, Sahib Edition, issued by P. F. Collier & Son circa 1910-1912, featuring Kipling's celebrated verse including Recessional, Gunga Din, The Vampire, and The Lovers Litany. Illustrated with sepia photogravure plates including The Vampire with its 1909 Edinburgh Society copyright, confirming the early printing window and additional drawings by Sir E. Burne-Jones, Reginald Bolles, and W. Kirkpatrick. Bound in maroon ribbed cloth with gilt-stamped spine panels and early Indian-inspired swastika good-luck emblems (a benign pre-1930s decorative device closely associated with Kipling). Text clean, binding tight, with tissue-guarded frontispiece intact; Very Good overall with light shelf wear and a neat early ownership signature ('Mrs. John M. G. Hay'). The swastika symbols on this early Kipling volume reflect their original, pre-1930s meaning as a traditional good-luck emblem. Rudyard Kipling adopted the right-facing swastika in the 1890s as his personal mark, drawing on its long history in India as a symbol of fortune and well-being, and publishers such as P.F. Collier & Son incorporated it into decorative bindings and title pages to evoke Kipling's Anglo-Indian identity. Its use here is entirely benign and predates the symbol's later appropriation and negative associations, which only emerged in the 1930s. Rudyard Kipling (1865-1936), British author and poet, was awarded the Nobel Prize in Literature (1907) for his narrative mastery and pioneering realism in prose and verse. His works, including The Jungle Book, Kim, and Barrack-Room Ballads, shaped late-Victorian and imperial literature through their blend of adventure, craftsmanship, and moral reflection.

Seller Inventory # NF.KIP.1911.10

Bibliographic Details

• Title: Rudyard Kipling - Sahib Edition Vol. X (Poems & Ballads, ca.1911, Collier)
• Publisher: P. F. Collier & Son
• Publication Date: 1911
• Language: English
• Binding: Hardcover
• Condition: Very Good
• Seller catalogs:
  • Non-Fiction
  • Poetry