Night Mail by Kipling, Signed (5 results)

Hardback. Condition: Very Good. Leyendecker, Frank X. [Xavier]; Reuterdahl, H. [Henry] (illustrator). First thus. A fascinating read and with remarkable cover art. Few people know that Rudyard Kipling briefly ventured into writing science fiction. This book, With the Night Mail, was his first enthusiastic attempt. It is a novella that originally appeared in magazines in 1905 before Doubleday, Page, and Company published it (with some minor changes) as a book unto itself-with an absolutely gorgeous gilt and silver cover--in 1909. The story imagines life in the 21st century, when transport by airships-later to be called "dirigibles" in real life-was so commonplace that it was regulated by a trans-world agency known as the Aerial Board of Control, which was in charge of traffic and rescues. Kipling tells the story of what happens when a postal airship, on a typical transatlantic night run to Quebec, encounters another airship, in trouble and losing altitude just as a storm is whipping up. It's an imaginative story, with a creative new vocabulary, but Kipling also obviously drew from the familiar. The Aerial Board of Control (or the A.B.C.) reminiscent of an international coast guard, for instance, similar to the one regulating shipping around Britain in the early 20th century; meanwhile, airships were on the cusp of commercial viability at the time Kipling was writing and were being publicly tested over Paris. But as real as they may have been in 1905, they certainly fed Kipling's imagination. He used them as the jumping-off point for world creation. Besides the text of the story itself, Doubleday, Page, and Company collected other items Kipling created in connection with it--such as the "Aerial Board of Control Bulletin," and fictitious advertisements related to airships similar to those that frequently appeared in the back of books published during this era--and presented them as additional documentation to back up his story. Kipling became so enthralled with his own creation that he wrote a second, longer story titled, "As Easy as ABC" in 1907, though it was not published until 1912. Both works have been highly influential. Modern readers might be struck by how much they remind them of the steampunk genre, close to a hundred years before steampunk became popular. Kipling anticipated a number of technologies in his A.B.C. stories that came into real-life use decades later. As a stylist, science fiction writer Robert A. Heinlein found Kipling's use of indirect exposition in With the Night Mail very influential on his own work. There is even a series of computer role-playing games based on the A.B.C. Because the texts within this copy were first published in magazines, Doubleday, Page, and Company did not officially label its 1909 release as a "first edition," so we are calling our copy a "First Edition Thus." It is lovingly illustrated with color plates by Frank X. Leyendecker and H. [for Henry] Reuterdahl. One plate, opposite the title page, is fronted by a tipped-in sheet of tissue paper; it also has a small closed tear on its fore edge that is limited to the margin and does not affect the image itself in any way. A similar fore edge tear is on an unnumbered page in the back of the book. Page 18 is soiled in its margins and some of that has carried over to the blank facing page. Both front and rear endpapers are illustrated by two-page painting signed by Leyendecker. The front flysheet of this illustration has come loose-apparently this is a common problem with this book--but is otherwise undamaged and is included in its appropriate place; someone has written "#50" in ink in small figures on the inside cover. The bottom back inside hinge is starting to tear but otherwise the binding is sound and tight. Pagination for this book is.odd. Only the recto pages are printed, and not all of them are numbered. Several sellers have noted what appears to be a cut out page before the half-title page, but our examination suggests that it is instead related to the binding process and not a flaw. The book is bound in dark blue cloth with gilt and silver.

Hardcover. Condition: Fine. Octavo. 121pp. A science fiction story written in 1904 and inspired by the Wright Brothers' flight, which took place the year before, the work is illustrated with thirty-two drawings of flying machines by Vincent Perez, one facing each page of text. Introduction by Thomas Pinney. A fine copy in sailcloth, housed in original Tyvek mailing envelope with string-and-button tie, which shows some light wrinkling, as usual. One of 250 copies signed by the illustrator.

Condition: Very Good. Limited Edition. One of 250 numbered copies signed by Perez. Bound in cloth with an envelope. Includes prospectus. The envelope has several tears around the opening with tape repairs. The book and prospectus are unmarked. [Of-C4]. Signed by Illustrator(s).

First edition thus. Introduction by Thomas Pinney. Octavo. 119 pages. Illustrations by Vincent Perez. Full canvas. Printed title-label label on upper cover and spine. Printed under the direction of Andrew Hoyem. "Zounds! Science fiction from 1905. Predicting aeronautics in the year 2000 to be primarily dirigible. Airplanes outmoded. Airships the main means of conveyance for passengers and freight. The mail, airmail of course, transported across the Atlantic overnight." - from the 8-page Prospectus which is present.One of 250 numbered copies signed by the artist.Fine in the original printed reinforced envelope which is creased.

Limited Edition. One of 250 numbered copies specially bound and signed by the artist, this being copy no.160. Octavo (25.5cm); full beige canvas cloth, with printed title label mounted across spine and front cover; publisher's original reinforced string-tied envelope, with printed labels; [ii],[4],5-119,[7]pp, with an applied frontispiece portrait of Kipling, and 32 illustrations by Vincent Perez. Fine in a Near Fine envelope, with some mild external wear, and some very faint creasing along one edge. Fine press edition of Kipling's science fiction story set in the year 2000, first published in the November, 1905 issue of McClure's Magazine. With an introduction by Thomas Pinney. Arion No.54.