Kipling Rudyard

1901 · Best.-Nr. 009002 — London: Macmillan and Co. Ltd. 1901. First edition. Hardcover. This is the first English edition of Kim “considered to be Kipling’s greatest work and the finest novel about the India of the British Empire”. Bound in red cloth with a gilt circular elephant vignette on the front cover and gilt spine lettering it is illustrated with ten photographic plates of clay reliefs including the frontispiece by the author's father John Lockwood Kipling. This copy is in very good plus condition clean and bright. The original red cloth binding is square tight and retains deep unfaded color with no color shift between the covers and spine bright gilt and only faint trivial blemishes. Wear is minimal including gently bruised lower corners a faint dent to the center fore edges and wrinkling at the spine ends. The contents are bright and all illustrated plates are present. We find no previous owner marks. Spotting is primarily confined to the endpapers the frontispiece the facing title page and the intact tissue guard between them. The gilt top edges remain uniformly bright. The fore and bottom edges show mild age-toning. The lovely binding is protected beneath a clear removable mylar cover. Among Kipling’s tales of India perhaps none eclipses his masterpiece Kim. This is the story of Kimball O’Hara an Irish orphan who goes from begging on the streets of Lahore to being a spy for the British simultaneously taking a spiritual journey that conflicts with his new obligations to the Empire. Kim’s context is the “Great Game” that pitted Russia against Britain for control of the subcontinent in the wake of the Second Afghan War 1878-1880. Kipling’s career as a journalist afforded him travel to the major cities of India a breadth of geographic experience with the subcontinent that informs the sweeping settings of Kim. The British first edition of Kim published the same month as its U.S. first edition counterpart followed serialization in the United States in McClure’s Magazine from December 1900 through October 1901 and in Britain in Cassell’s Magazine from January through November 1901. Chosen by the New York Public Library as one of its “books of the century” Kim was “Kipling’s final book about India and was called ‘magical’ upon publication. When the orphaned Kimball O’Hara joins a Buddhist lama in his search for the River of Healing the reader not only beholds a kaleidoscope of people and settings through Kim’s eyes but also feels the native social and spiritual currents of India moving beneath the political veneer of imperial ambitions and authority. Bengali critic Niraud Chaudhuri called Kim ‘the finest novel in the English language dealing with an Indian theme’”. Kim was also included in the Modern Library’s list of the 100 best English-language books of the 20th century. Joseph Rudyard Kipling 1865-1936 was an English poet short-story writer and novelist chiefly remembered for his celebration of British imperialism stories and poems of British India and his tales for children. Despite this reputation Kipling’s extraordinary body of work “eludes all labels in its range and variety… Kipling's work is not only of the highest artistic excellence it is deeply humane and fully expresses the sense of one of his favourite texts: ‘Praised be Allah for the diversity of his creatures.’” Kipling was in his twenties when his stories of Anglo-Indian life made him a literary celebrity and he was awarded the Nobel Prize in Literature in 1907. Kipling was the first English language author awarded and remains the youngest person to receive the Prize. References: Richards A174; ODNB Books of the Century Macmillan and Co., Ltd. hardcover