THE NAULAHKA: A Story of West and East
1892réf. 157451892. London: William Heinemann 1892. 8 pp undated ads. Original salmon cloth decorated in brown. First Edition of Kipling's only serious attempt at literary collaboration. A Vermonter Wolcott Balestier was an American author and publisher's agent in London; in fact in 1890 he and Heinemann had founded the Heinemann & Balestier publishing house in Leipzig books in English for the Continental market. He had written about the American "Wild West" and Kipling of course had written about India. THE NAULAHKA a misspelling of "naulakha" which in Hindu means nine lakhs i.e. 900000 rupees is an odd tale that combines these two environments into "A Story of East and West" -- a man from a Western boom-town attempts to get possession of a fabulous jewel in India. In December 1891 six months before this was published Balestier suddenly died at age 29 of typhoid fever in Dresden. Kipling had met Wolcott's sister Carrie and just a month after Wolcott died she became Kipling's wife; the Kiplings built their first home in Vermont and in memory of her brother named it "Naulakha" -- spelled correctly. The newlywed Kiplings lived in Vermont for four years toward the end of which Kipling wrote CAPTAINS COURAGEOUS about the Massachusetts fishing fleet; but it all came crashing down when Wolcott's brother Beatty was arrested for assaulting Kipling -- there was an altercation after Kipling had created a little garden on land he owned but had allowed Beatty to hay: the Kiplings fled to England. This is an unusually clean copy just about fine a hint of rubbing at the spine ends; such condition is scarce for this book in view of its soil-prone salmon-colored binding. Richards A66; Stewart 105; Livingston 85. unknown books
Sumner & Stillman · États-Unis350,00 $US≈ 312,08 €
