Lot Details
Lot 106
KIPLING, RUDYARD The Writings in Prose and Verse
. New York: Charles Scribner's Sons, 1897. The Outward Bound edition, inscribed twice and with a quotation by Kipling, the first inscription on the portrait ("Rudyard Kipling to F.N. Doubleday who invented this edition. Jan. 1897") and again on the title page in 1899, the quote from Kipling's "Follow Me 'Ome." 35 (of 36) volumes, parts XV & XVI each in two volumes but without volumes 30-32. Half morocco backed boards, the spines with strapwork bands and gilt lettering, slipcases. Some wear to joints and discolor to spines, some foxing and offsetting.
Although published under Charles Scribner's imprint, this first collected edition of Kipling's works was made possible by F.N. Doubleday, whose first job in the publishing business was gathering subscriptions for his eventual competitor. In his memoirs, Doubleday wrote that one day someone asked: "Will you get me a complete set of Kipling in uniform binding?' I told him that it did not exist. That gave me an idea that perhaps I could get permission to make a uniform set. The difficulties of the job, even now that I look back on it, were tremendous." The difficulty was that Kipling's works were published by four different companies - and none of them Scribner's. Doubleday solicited the help of Kipling himself and with the success of this venture began their decades long friendship and partnership, which prospered once Doubleday began publishing under his own imprint. A tribute to his efforts, a tipped-in leaf at the front of this set reports that two copies were printed on special paper, one each for Kipling and Doubleday, and it is uncertain but possible that this twice inscribed set is that referenced. See F.N. Doubleday, The Memoirs of a Publisher, p. 19.
C The Nelson Doubleday, Jr. Collection
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