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Kipling, Rudyard.
Rewards and Fairies [First printing of Kipling’s ‘If’].
Publisher: MacMillan and Co., London;
Date of Publication: 1910
Stock Code: 15282
First edition, first printing. Octavo, pp., xii, 338, [10] of publisher’s catalogue, four photolithographic plates after paintings by Frank Craig, as called for. Publisher’s original red cloth; titled in gilt to spine; elephant vignette in gilt to upper board. ‘Presentation copy’ within roundel blind-stamped to title-page. Two publisher’s catalogue leaflets for Autumn 1910 laid-in. Spine somewhat faded; soiling to lower board and edges of upper board; elephant a touch rubbed. The usual offsetting to end-papers, else internally clean. A very good copy. A collection of short stories and poems by Rudyard Kipling, including the first appearance in print of his much loved the poem ‘If’. Kipling later opined on the poem’s ubiquity ‘they were printed as cards to hang up in offices and bedrooms; illuminated text-wise... Twenty-seven of the Nations of the Earth translated them into their seven-and-twenty tongues, and printed them on every sort of fabric.’ (Kipling, Autobiographical Writings, 111). The first printing of this Edwardian classic now quoted the world over. Copies in good condition are scarce. £300.00