Kipling Rudyard

1897 · ref. 2352703 — New York: The Century Co 1897. First American Edition. Hard Cover. Good/No Jacket. First American edition. Crease on rear board corner causing minor split to rear endpaper spine slightly toned ink name and a few small spots on front endpapers rear hinge just beginning to weaken. 1897 Hard Cover. 323 pp. Olive cloth gilt titles and decorations with black and red borders and accents engraved frontispiece and plates. "First published in 1897 'Captains Courageous' follows the adventures of Harvey Cheyne a spoiled rich young man who is accidentally washed overboard from a luxury ocean liner and is rescued by the Portuguese captain of a fishing boat and his hard scrabble crew. Kipling drawing on his own experiences living in Vermont fills this classic coming of age story with period details of late nineteenth-century American fishing whaling and railroad travel. Forced to work for his place on the ship fifteen-year-old Harvey must overcome his own stubbornness and privileged up-bringing as he learns to survive and even thrive in the harsh demanding and often dangerous life at sea. Through hard work and discipline Harvey learns the values of self-reliance and friendship as he becomes a skilled fisherman and an accepted and equal member of the crew. The novel is both a thrilling test of Harvey's character and an examination of class and privilege in nineteenth-century America. Exhilarating and ultimately redemptive the novel was heralded by Theodore Roosevelt in his 1900 essay 'What We Can Expect of the American Boy' as describing in the 'liveliest way just what a boy should be and do. The Century Co hardcover