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A first edition of this verse collection, published just after the end of World War One in 1919 by Methuen - with 1919 on the title page and no mention of any further printings on the printer's page. ***Very good in salmon-pink cloth-covered boards with gilt titles to the spine. The gilt is still bright although the spine has faded. The boards are marked by damp at the lower corners, but this doesn't affect the interior. The bottom corner of the front board has been bumped, but the other corners are sharp. Top edge of page block gilt by the publisher. Fore-edge rough-cut by the printer (deckle-edged). All edges clean without any foxing. No reading lean to the binding. Spine tight. Internally also very good with an ownership name in ink on the front free endpaper. No other annotations. Contents clean. No foxing. No creases or tears. Printed on nice quality paper. No dustwrapper. ***193mm x 128mm. 160 pages plus a 32pp publisher's catalogue at the back of the book. ***'Joseph Rudyard Kipling (30 Dec 1865 - 18 Jan 1936) was an English novelist, short-story writer, poet, and journalist. He was born in British India, which inspired much of his work. Kipling's works of fiction include the Jungle Book duology - "The Jungle Book" (1894, "The Second Jungle Book" (1895), "Kim" (1901), the "Just So Stories" (1902) and many short stories, including "The Man Who Would Be King" (1888). 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. His children's books are classics; one critic noted "a versatile and luminous narrative gift". Kipling in the late 19th and early 20th centuries was among the United Kingdom's most popular writers. Henry James said "Kipling strikes me personally as the most complete man of genius, as distinct from fine intelligence, that I have ever known." In 1907, he was awarded the Nobel Prize in Literature, as the first English-language writer to receive the prize, and at 41, its youngest recipient to date. He was also sounded out for the British Poet Laureateship and several times for a knighthood, but declined both. Following his death in 1936, his ashes were interred at Poets' Corner, part of the South Transept of Westminster Abbey. Kipling's subsequent reputation has changed with the political and social climate of the age. The contrasting views of him continued for much of the 20th century. 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."' (Wiki) ***A very good first edition example of this small book of Kipling's verse, published just after the end of the Great War. ***For all our books, postage is charged at cost, allowing for packaging: any shipping rates indicated on ABE are an average only: we will reduce the P & P charge where appropriate - please contact us for postal rates for heavier books and sets etc.
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