A SONG OF THE ENGLISH

[Robinson, W. Heath, illus.]; Kipling Rudyard

Published by New York Doubleday, Page & Company [1909]

About this Item

First American edition, specifically produced for the Christmas season of 1909. As the English, but this copy bound in the olive green cloth variant. With 30 color plates tipped-in within ornamental borders, and with black and white drawings on almost every page, all by W. Heath Robinson. Descriptive tissue guards, each with a miniature line illustration. Pictorial title and fifty-nine black and white illustration sin the text. Title printed in red and black. Large 4to, original olive green cloth lettered and elaborately decorated in gilt with fine pictorial designs on the upper cover and spine. An unusally nice copy of this lovely book, the binding and text are both very fine and the plates all pristine and as mint, the cloth and gilt quite bright and very well preserved. FIRST EDITION OF THIS VERY BEAUTIFULLY ILLUSTRATED WORK BY RUDYARD KIPLING. THE W. HEATH ROBINSON ILLUSTRATIONS ARE SUPERB BY ANY MEASURE. The trade edition of this volume was issued to benefit the "Daily Telegraph" National Bands Fund, and includes the text of a speech given by Kipling on the subject: "From the lowest point of view, a few drums and fifes in a battalion are worth five extra miles on a route march." Robinson s highly sensuous illustrations perfectly complement Kipling s poems of British seafaring around the world. The grand poem, SONG OF THE ENGLISH is followed by six subsidiary poems likely composed while the Kiplings were living in Vermont. The theme underlying much of this collection is that the English are the Chosen under the Lord. This is one of Kipling s earliest verses specifically setting out his vision of the British Empire, and the duties which it imposes on the English people. His definition of 'the English' is wide, certainly embracing the people of the overseas Empire, Australia, New Zealand, Canada, South Africa, but arguably also the Americans among whom he lived in the years working on the collection. "The next important task I undertook, was the illustration of an edition of Rudyard Kipling's A SONG OF THE ENGLISH to be published.in the year 1908. It became necessary for me to meet the author and discuss the proposed book with him. For this purpose, I traveled down to Burwash where he lived at that time. This was an excursion I shall always remember. I was met a Heathfield and journeyed thence in a motor-car. There were few cars on the road in those days and this in itself was a joyful experience as we drove through the pleasant Sussex lanes. Bateman's, the house at Burwash, where Rudyard Kipling lived, was a fine old building with stone mullioned windows. It was in the midst of wind-blown Sussex country. Three was a faint smell of the sea in the air wafting across the few miles of country from the shore where the Coastwise lights of England watch the ships of England go. It was a fitting setting in which to find the author of A SONG OF THE ENGLISH. He met and entertained me with a quiet affability, which speedily removed the shyness I felt at first in his presence. Before long I was quite at home with him. His own knowledge of illustration gave him an appreciation of the artist's point of view. While making suggestions, he realized that the illustrator must have a free a hand as possible. His sympathetic understanding of my part in the undertaking made me feel tha I was consulting with a brother artist. I spent a happy and for me a helpful day. It was a great inspiration for the work I had in hand to be in such close association with the author's interesting personalty, i am always glad to remember that he was satisfied with my illustrations to his book." (W. Heath Robinson, MY LINE OF LIFE. pp. 126-127). Seller Inventory # 28248

Bibliographic Details

Title: A SONG OF THE ENGLISH

Publisher: New York Doubleday, Page & Company [1909]

Binding: Hardcover

Edition: 1st Edition