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185 x 120 mm. (7 1/4 x 4 3/4"). xv, [iii], 230 pp. VERY ATTRACTIVE SCARLET POLISHED CALF, GILT, BY FROST (stamp-signed on front flyleaf), covers with double fillet border, raised bands, spine compartments with antique scrolling cornerpieces and centerpiece, green and maroon morocco labels, richly gilt turn-ins, marbled endpapers, all edges gilt. Engraved title page. Stewart 140; Livingston 131; Martindell 59. A group of seven leaves lightly foxed, otherwise a virtually mint copy inside and out, the decorative binding exceptionally bright. This is a very pleasing copy in quite an attractive leather binding of a collection of 51 Kipling poems, including "Song of the English," "The Rhyme of the Three Sealers," and "The Story of Ung." Day writes that "people uninterested in poetry 'qua' poetry were thrilled by the splendor and spread of empire as glorified in [this work]. Kipling's Toryism made the mediocre Alfred Austin the poet laureate in 1896, but Kipling was the unofficial laureate of the British empire." One of Britain's best-known writers, Rudyard Kipling (1865-1936) is most famous for his works portraying the lives of the native population and colonialists on the Indian subcontinent. He was born in Bombay, where his father ran an art school, and he lived in India until the age of six. He was sent to school in England, but chose to return to the East at 18. He proved to be a prolific author, writing novels, tales for children and adults, and many poems. Kipling's wife was American, and they lived for a time in Vermont, but from 1896, the couple settled in England. Among his many honors are a Nobel Prize (1907) and the Gold Medal of the Royal Society of Literature (1926), which had previously only been awarded to Scott, Meredith, and Hardy. Copies of the present book are easy to find, but they are not so readily available in reasonably priced pretty bindings like the one offered here.
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