ABAFT THE FUNNEL
- SIGNED
- 1909
1909. New York: B.W. Dodge & Company, 1909. Original blue cloth pictorially decorated in black and lettered in gilt, with dust jacket.
First Edition, first binding state, with the quite-uncommon dust jacket. The enterprising publisher Dodge (in business only during 1903-1911) gleaned these pieces from Indian periodicals (most of them dating from 1889), and put together this collection without Kipling's knowledge or permission. As Richards quotes from a contemporary Kipling letter, "[The book] was, of course, issued without any knowledge, consent or authorization, and, so far as I can judge, without a proof reader... Past experience has shown me that mere protest is useless. I have therefore instructed my own publishers (Doubleday, Page & Co.) to produce the same volume in the hope of showing book-makers like the Dodge Company the commercial inexpediency of an enterprise which they have, unhumourously, marked 'copyright'." On that direction, Doubleday issued a volume of the same material [and with the same title], to retail at 19 cents. The initial (first) binding of Dodge's edition, published in October 1909 at $1.50, has lettering in gilt; Doubleday's 19-cent edition came out in December, and soon thereafter Dodge starting binding up his remaining copies in a second and then a third binding, both with red lettering -- in an effort to reduce costs to remain competitive. Copies with red lettering turn up in dust jacket with some frequency (understandably the book no longer sold well), but copies with gilt lettering (like this copy) seldom do. This volume is bright and fine (essentially as new); the dust jacket is close-to-fine as well, with just a smidge of wear at the upper corners of the spine. Richards A227; Stewart 324; Livingston 328. This is a presentation copy inscribed by the publisher Dodge two months after publication, reading on the front free endpaper "Best wishes of the publisher | (see title page) and his wife | Xmas 1909.
First Edition, first binding state, with the quite-uncommon dust jacket. The enterprising publisher Dodge (in business only during 1903-1911) gleaned these pieces from Indian periodicals (most of them dating from 1889), and put together this collection without Kipling's knowledge or permission. As Richards quotes from a contemporary Kipling letter, "[The book] was, of course, issued without any knowledge, consent or authorization, and, so far as I can judge, without a proof reader... Past experience has shown me that mere protest is useless. I have therefore instructed my own publishers (Doubleday, Page & Co.) to produce the same volume in the hope of showing book-makers like the Dodge Company the commercial inexpediency of an enterprise which they have, unhumourously, marked 'copyright'." On that direction, Doubleday issued a volume of the same material [and with the same title], to retail at 19 cents. The initial (first) binding of Dodge's edition, published in October 1909 at $1.50, has lettering in gilt; Doubleday's 19-cent edition came out in December, and soon thereafter Dodge starting binding up his remaining copies in a second and then a third binding, both with red lettering -- in an effort to reduce costs to remain competitive. Copies with red lettering turn up in dust jacket with some frequency (understandably the book no longer sold well), but copies with gilt lettering (like this copy) seldom do. This volume is bright and fine (essentially as new); the dust jacket is close-to-fine as well, with just a smidge of wear at the upper corners of the spine. Richards A227; Stewart 324; Livingston 328. This is a presentation copy inscribed by the publisher Dodge two months after publication, reading on the front free endpaper "Best wishes of the publisher | (see title page) and his wife | Xmas 1909.