Wheeler‘s Indian Railway Library Series

Rudyard Kipling, Wheeler's Indian Railway Library Series, Allahabad: Wheeler & Co. / London: Sampston Low, Marston & Co. Ltd, Circa 1890s

6 stories/volumes bound into one. Original illustrated greenish-grey wraps priced at "1 Shilling" with black lettering to front cover retained inside. All bound in a blue cloth board with gilt text at the spine.
8.25 x 6 x 1.75 in (21 x 15 x 4.5 cm)

1. Soldiers Three: A Collection of Stories Setting forth certain Passages in the Lives and Adventures of Privates Terence Mulvaney, Stanley Ortheris, and John Learoyd, 1891, eighth ediiton; 93 pages
2. The Story of the Gadsby's: A Tale Without a Plot, Not dated but Circa 1891, sixth edition; 93 pages
3. In Black and White, Not dated but Circa 1890s, seventh edition; 96 pages
4. Under the Deodars, Not dated but Circa 1890s, fifth edition; 96 pages
5. The Phantom Rickshaw and other Eerie Tales, Not dated but Circa 1890s, third edition; 104 pages
6. Wee Willie Winkie and other Stories, Not dated but Circa 1890s, sixth edition; 96 pages

The chain of A H Wheeler was originally founded by Emile Moreau (a French businessman), T K Banerjee (an Indian businessman), Arthur Henry Wheeler (after whom the store got named), Arthur Lisle Wheeler, W M Rudge and Armenian Tigran Ratheus David in Allahabad, or present-day Prayagraj, in 1877. The name A H Wheeler was borrowed from the famous London bookstore "Arthur Henry Wheelers," who had been a friend of the founders and helped him financially.

The Indian Railway Library was an enterprise conducted in Allahabad from 1888. It was a publishing venture of A H Wheeler & Co., who "had the monopoly on bookstall sales on Indian railway stations". It was a series of pamphlets intended to catch the interest of railway passengers and offer cheap "throwaway" reading material.

The series began as a result of an initiative by Rudyard Kipling as he sought to assemble funds to return to England from India in 1888. He approached the senior partner of A. H. Wheeler & Co., Emile Moreau, with the proposal to publish his stories in cheap booklet form. The booklets were to have grey-green card covers, with illustrations by Rudyard's father John Lockwood Kipling.

Six booklets were initially produced, which sold at the price of one rupee. They were all by Rudyard Kipling and consisted mainly of reprints of stories that had already appeared in various of the periodicals for which he was already writing in India. They were all published in 1888. (Source: Wikipedia)

This series was launched in the years following the construction of the railways in British India.

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