Rewards and Fairies.
New York: Doubleday, Page & Company, 1910. First U.S. edition, first printing. Hardcover. This is the U.S. first edition, first printing. This collection of stories and poems is a continuation of the Puck stories first told in 1906's Puck of Pook's Hill, and contains eleven stories and twenty-three poems. It is notable for containing the first volume appearance of the poem "If --".
The ribbed dark green cloth binding is illustrated with a black-stamped, Kipling-designed Viking longship on a wave-crested sea on the front cover and spine, as well as the gilt-stamped title and author on both front cover and spine. The contents include four full-page black and white plates by Frank Craig, including a frontispiece.
Condition of this copy is very good. The illustrated cloth binding is square, clean, tight, and unfaded. Modest wear is confined to joints and extremities, the spine ends a little wrinkled, the spine head and upper corners a touch frayed, the lower corners gently bumped. The contents are bright and clean with no spotting and no previous ownership marks. All four illustrations are present, as is the frontispiece tissue guard. Age-toning is substantially confined to the text block edges and endpapers. Note that the leaf on which "IF-" begins, at p.181, is still connected to the lower fore edge of the facing leaf; the signature was never fully cut. As a result, there is a short closed tear approximately an inch in length at the lower fore edge of p.181, entirely contained within the blank margin.
“This collection of eleven stories and twenty-three poems is a continuation of the Puck stories begun in Puck of Pook’s Hill (1906)… The book’s title is taken from the first line of a poem entitled ‘The Fairies’ Farewell’ by Richard Corbet (1582-1635)”. Publication of this U.S. first edition followed a week after the 11 August 1910 publication of its British first edition counterpart. All of the stories and poems in Rewards and Fairies, together with those in Puck of Pook’s Hill, were later collected in one volume, All the Puck Stories. (1935).
Published herein for the first time, Kipling’s poem "If --" proved to be so popular that a stand-alone edition of the poem was swiftly published in the US the following month, a British edition following in 1914.
Iconic English poet, short-story writer, and novelist Joseph Rudyard Kipling (1865-1936) is 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.’”
Born in India and educated in England, Kipling could not afford to attend either Oxford or Cambridge University and instead returned to India to work as a newspaper editor and writer, which proved formative. 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.
Reference: Richards A243; ODNB. Item #009007
Price: $250.00