Letters of Marque

Kipling, Rudyard

Published by A.H. Wheeler & Co., Allahabad, 1891

About this Item

RARE TRUE FIRST EDITION. The suppressed Indian edition, published by A.H. Wheeler & Co., Allahabad. Apparently only circa 100 copies in existence (?). There were 1000 copies printed, however only 100 were supposedly not destroyed when the book's release was suppressed by Rudyard Kipling. A.H. Wheeler & Co., publisher of the Indian Railway Series, had been Kipling's authorized publisher in India. However, after Kipling left India for England, Wheeler promptly prepared for publication three more collections of Kipling pieces, without authority: The City of Dreadful Night and Other Sketches, The Smith Administration, and Letters of Marque. Kipling insisted that all three editions be entirely destroyed; today there are only a handful of the first two titles, but it is estimated that there are about 100 copies (out of 1000 printed) of Letters of Marque that escaped destruction. Most copies have a purple stamp on the ffep with its issue date of distribution, and on the same page is an A.H. Wheeler purple price stamp. This copy with both the issue date ("Issued 8 Feb. 92") & publisher's purple ink price stamps to ffep (see photographs). Printed at the Pioneer Press in Allahabad. Bound in publisher's original diagonal red & blue cloth to front, red cloth to rear, bright gilt lettering to front board & spine. Slight handling wear, mild soiling/spotting to covers with light rippling to cloth, otherwise a nice clean tight solid hardcover copy. 154pp + 4pp preliminary + 4pp at rear of Opinions of the Press & publisher's undated Advertisements. RARE.

Seller Inventory # 001278

Bibliographic Details

• Title: Letters of Marque
• Publisher: A.H. Wheeler & Co., Allahabad
• Publication Date: 1891
• Language: English
• Binding: Hardcover
• Edition: First Edition
• Condition: Very Good
• Seller catalogs:
  • Travel
  • Rare
  • Antiquarian