Kipling Rudyard

1937 · réf. 165903 — London: Macmillan and Company 1937-39. The most desirable collected edition The Sussex Edition number 72 of 525 sets only signed by the author in the first volume and containing two volumes of previously uncollected prose. Published after Kipling's death on 18 January 1936 this magnificent posthumous edition saw a small limitation and became even rarer following the destruction of many unsold sheets during the German bombing of London. In his last years and with his health failing Kipling remained determined to finish editing this "great retrospective work" which was first proposed in 1928. The edition was "fuller than that of any other. Kipling saw the proofs of at least 21 of the edition's 35 volumes before his death" and it is now "among the most prized and most expensive of all modern editions" Pinney p. 231. 35 vols large octavo. Printed on handmade paper with Ganesha watermark. Fly-titles printed in orange. Original full russet niger by James Burn & Co. spines lettered in gilt raised bands ruled in blind twin gilt fillet bordering covers turn-ins ruled in gilt and blind marbled endpapers top edges gilt and red on the rough other edges uncut. Bindings slightly darkened occasional light scuffs and internal marks otherwise clean. A near-fine set. Richards D23; Stewart pp. 577-80. Thomas Pinney The Letters of Rudyard Kipling vol. 6 1990. hardcover