SOLDIERS THREE

Kipling, Rudyard ("done into type and edited by")

Published by Publication Date: 1888

A Collection of Stories Setting forth certain Passages in the Lives and Adventures of Privates Terence Mulvaney, Stanley Ortheris, and John Learoyd. Allahabad: Printed at The "Pioneer" Press [for A.H. Wheeler & Co.], 1888. 6 pp undated ads. Original grey-green pictorial wrappers. First Edition, first issue, of Kipling's third major work (after DEPARTMENTAL DITTIES and PLAIN TALES FROM THE HILLS). SOLDIERS THREE, consisting of seven tales of the Indian military, was the first volume in Wheeler's "Indian Railway Library"; as anticipated on the first ad leaf here, three other Kipling titles (THE STORY OF THE GADSBYS, IN BLACK AND WHITE and UNDER THE DEODARS) were soon issued as the second through fourth volumes of the Library -- to complete Kipling's satire of "the four main features of Anglo-Indian Life: military, domestic, native and social." As the 1500 copies of the first edition were bound up and sent out, the wrapper design was retouched with a few minor additions. This copy is of the first issue, with the earlier state of all three changes: there is no cross-hatching on the barrack doors in the distance, there are no periods after "No" and "Library" in the Wheeler medallion, and there is no mention of the "Mayo School of Art, Lahore" (which, under the directorship of Kipling's father, designed the wrappers for the series). This is a surprisingly very good-plus copy of this very fragile piece, with minor-to-moderate edge-wear of the wrapper, and about a quarter of the (blank) spine chipped away (fortunately this has not been "remedied" by adding later paper). Quite uncommon thus (although the first editions of all six Kipling Indian Railway titles consisted of 1500 copies, SOLDIERS THREE seems to be the scarcest); A.H. Wheeler had a monopoly on the bookstalls of the Indian Railway, so these cheap books were meant to be bought at the outset of a trip, and discarded at the destination. Housed in a handsome morocco-backed slipcase with inner folder. Richards A14; Stewart 28; Livingston 28. Seller Inventory # 15877

Bibliographic Details

Title: SOLDIERS THREE
Publication Date: 1888
Binding: Soft cover
Edition: First Edition.