TITLE: Rudyard Kipling's Verse. Inclusive Edition 1885-1918
AUTHOR: Rudtard Kipling
PUBLISHER: Hodder & Stoughton
PLACE: London
YEAR: 1919
EDITION: First.
NUMBERED: Limited edition. 100 copies of this inclusive edition were been printed, numbered and signed of which this is no.100.
BINDING: Full white vellum binding with gilt decorative borders to spines and gilt emblems with and a floral cameo with author's initials "R K" in gold graces the front boards, top edges gilt and fore and shelf edges untrimmed
NO.OF PAGES: ix, 318 pp (1st volume); ix, 324 pp (2nd volume); x, 292 pp, index of first lines to Vol III (3rd volume)
SIZE OF 3 VOLUMES:
Height: 22 cm
Width: 16.5 cm
Depth: 4 cm

FIRST, LIMITEDEDITION AND SIGNED COPY BY THE AUTHOR

Rudyard Joseph Kipling was born in the then named Bombay, India on 30th December 1865. Aged six, he was sent to England to be educated, firstly in Southsea, where he was cared for in a foster home, and later at Westward Ho, a United Services College in Devon. A life of misery at the former was described in his story 'Baa Baa Black Sheep', whilst Westward Ho was used as a basis for his questioning the public school ethic in 'Stalky and Co'. Kipling returned to India in 1882 to work as an assistant editor for the Civil and Military Gazette of Lahore. His reputation as a writer was established with stories of English life in India, published there in 1888/9. 'The Phantom Rickshaw', 'Soldiers Three'and 'Under the Deodars' are amongst these early works. Returning to England in 1889, Kipling settled in London and continued to earn a living as a writer. In 1892 he married Caroline Balestier, an American. They travelled extensively in the following four years, including a spell living in America, and it was in this time most of his enduring work was written, not least 'The Jungle Book' and 'The Second Jungle Book'. Kipling once again returned to England in 1896 and continued his writing career, although tragedy hit the family when his eldest daughter, Josephine, died in 1899. Nonetheless, in 1901 he completed 'Kim', often considered to be his best work. The following year, having settled in Sussex, he published 'Just So Stories', a bookhe had planned to write for Josephine. Having refused the position of Poet Laureate, which was offered in 1895, he did accept the Nobel Prize for Literature, becoming the first English author to be so honored.