About this Item
Bound in finely woven blue cloth stamped brightly in gilt with serpent vignette on the front boards and wavy gilt lines at the top and bottom edges.Gilt on the spine is dulled and faded. There is fraying and wear to the top and bottom ends of the spine and some closed tears to the cloth at the top edge of the gilt lettering. Internally very good and clean; hinges have been reglued. Overall, a serviceable copy of the first edition. The Second Jungle Book features five stories about the now famous Mowgli plus three unrelated stories. The tales are set in India yet written in Vermont when Kipling was living there with his American wife, Caroline Balestier. Joseph Rudyard Kipling(1865 1936)[1]was an English journalist, short-story writer, poet, and novelist. He was born in India, which inspired much of his work.Kipling's works of fiction includeThe Jungle Book(1894),Kim(1901), and many short stories, including "The Man Who Would Be King" (1888).[2]His poems include "Mandalay" (1890), "Gunga Din" (1890), "The Gods of the Copybook Headings" (1919), "The White Man's Burden" (1899), and "If" (1910). He is seen as an innovator in the art of the short story.[3]His children's books are classics; one critic noted "a versatile and luminous narrative gift."[4][5] Kipling in the late 19th and early 20th centuries was among the United Kingdom's most popular writers.[3]Henry Jamessaid, "Kipling strikes me personally as the most complete man of genius, as distinct from fine intelligence, that I have ever known."[3]In 1907, he was awarded theNobel Prize in Literature, as the first English-language writer to receive the prize, and at 41, its youngest recipient to date.[6]He was also sounded for the BritishPoet Laureateshipand several times for aknighthood, but declined both.[7]Following his death in 1936, his ashes were interred atPoets' Corner, part of the South Transept ofWestminster Abbey.Kipling's subsequent reputation has changed with the political and social climate of the age.[8][9]The contrasting views of him continued for much of the 20th century.[10][11]George Orwellsaw Kipling as "a jingo imperialist," who was "morally insensitive and aesthetically disgusting."[12]Literary critic Douglas Kerr wrote: "[Kipling] is still an author who can inspire passionate disagreement and his place in literary and cultural history is far from settled. But as the age of the European empires recedes, he is recognised as an incomparable, if controversial, interpreter of how empire was experienced. That, and an increasing recognition of his extraordinary narrative gifts, make him a force to be reckoned with." (Wikipedia).
Seller Inventory # 870
Contact seller
Report this item
