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Volumes I through XXVI and Volume XXVIII, quarto size, approx. 6650 total pages, signed by Rudyard Kipling in Volume I. Rudyard Kipling (1865-1936) is perhaps best known today for "The Jungle Book", however, he was prolific with a list almost too long to count of novels, short stories, poems, and travel literature. In 1907, at the age of 41, he was awarded the Nobel Prize in Literature, the first English language writer to receive the award, and the youngest recipient to date (n.b., above information from Wiki). This set of his works, "The Bombay Edition", has Kipling's signature in the first volume, and is printed on paper especially made for the edition bearing the watermark "R [elephant-headed Ganesha with swastika and lotus K". [Note: for those who may not be aware of this, the swastika was originally used as a symbol of many types of good wishes: health, luck, success, etc.; it's usage goes back as far as the 4th century BCE - or perhaps even earlier. It is in use in many Eastern religions even today as a symbol of divinity - it was in all of these positive aspects that Kipling used the symbol. It wasn't until the appropriation of the symbol by the Nazi party in the early 20th century that it came to mean, to many in Western and European cultures, a symbol of hatred and anti-Semitism.] The first twenty-five volumes issued in an edition of 1050 copies, the first eight volumes in 1913, volumes nine through twenty-two in 1914, volume twenty-three in 1915, volume twenty-four in 1917, and volume twenty-five in 1919. It was not until 1927 that volume twenty-six was published (obviously due to the Great War), and the final five volumes being issued in 1938, these final volumes issued in an edition of only 500 copies. This has had the result that many available sets do not contain the later volumes. This set consists of volumes one through twenty-six, consecutively, with the addition of volume twenty-eight. ___DESCRIPTION: Each volume bound in half natural linen over blue paper-covered boards, paper spine labels, top edges gilt, fore- and bottom edges uncut, volumes one through twenty-five with the Ex-Libris of Albert Julian Pell on the front pastedown (see Provenance below), Kipling's signature in black ink on the edition fore-title, each volume with the volume title page in blue and black, each story with a blue initial capital, each volume with a colophon with a Kipling's device in blue, most (but not all) volumes with spare spine labels tipped in at the rear flyleaf; bindings are quarto size (9 7/8" by 6 3/4"), pagination ranges from 135 to 357 pp.; note that the paper covering the boards on volume twenty-four does not match the other volumes (it is close in colour but different in texture), since the Ex-Libris matches the others in the set we surmise it was issued this way, but our bibliography is silent on that issue; also note that volumes twenty-six and twenty-eight were acquired separately, see notes below. ___CONDITION: The set is overall in solid very good condition; the bindings clean (although the blue paper now shows offsetting from the glue), a bit of very light bumping to the head and tail of the spines, the spine labels all sunned and some with light wear, strong, square text blocks with mostly solid hinges (a few tender or slightly cracked but still holding), most corners lightly rubbed, a few board edges lightly dinged, the interiors mostly clean and bright (a few pages with light foxing), and other than the Ex-Libris free of prior owner markings. Exceptions to this that we see include a prior bookseller pencilled marking above the Ex-Libris in volume one, the bottom front corner of volume seven appears to have been bent at some point, both hinges in volume thirteen were repaired at some point (with what appears to be archival paper, but we cannot be certain), volume twenty-four with a dark stain on the upper portion of the spine (whatever caused that did not penetrate into the book, as the interior is fine) an.
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