Kipling Rudyard

1897 · ref. 183779 — London: Macmillan & Co. Limited 1897. A beautifully bound copy First British edition smartly bound by Bayntun. 'Captains Courageous' is Kipling's only novel set entirely in America. "Kipling thought he'd written a great story. He wrote to Conland Dr. James Conland the dedicatee after the book had begun to appear serially 'I tell you that tale will be a snorter'" Gidmark p. 71. The British edition was preceded by the American edition by one month. The work was originally serialized in Pearson's Magazine between 1896 and 1897. It was written while the newlywed Kipling was living in Vermont. Octavo 177 x 117 mm. Frontispiece 21 full-page illustrations by I. W. Taber. Mid-20th-century blue morocco by Bayntun spine lettered in gilt compartments framed in gilt and decorated with gilt schooner device covers ruled in gilt roll to board edges gilt turn-ins ruled and with anchor device to corners in gilt marbled endpapers edges gilt original cloth spine and covers bound in at rear. Housed in custom blue cloth slipcase. Contemporary gift inscription to half-title partially faded. Spine sunned gilt remaining bright closed tear to later tissue guard following frontispiece foxing to a few pages. A near-fine copy. Richards A103; Stewart p. 152. Gidmark ed. Encyclopaedia of American Literature of the Sea and Great Lakes 2001. hardcover