The Saint Paul globe. (St. Paul, Minn.) 1896-1905, 1901-11-10
BRING FANCY PRICES
FIRST EDITIONS OF RUDYARD KIP
LING HIGHLY PRICED BY
COLLECTORS
COMPLETE SETS WORTH $4,000

OOm1 IE1E SL1D WOh1A 00,OUO
Eleven years ago, when Andrew Lang
said in the preface of a little volume,
containing "The Counting OF Dinah
Shadd' and five other Of Kipling's tales,
that he did not anticipate for Mr.. Kip
ling a very popular popularity, he prob
ably did not expect either that within a
few years the first edition of Kiplns s
works would be worth $1,000, the sum
paid this year by a Chicago collector
for a complete set of his books as first
issued, says the New York Sun. Still
another set has just been privately sold
to a New York collector for a sum said
to closely approach that figure, and I.u-
Their S. Livingstone, of this city, whose
hibliogra phica1 knowledge of Kiplins $
works is most intimate, has compiled
and printed for this bibliophile in lin
tied edition of seYenty-seven copies q
catalogue of his possessions. These in
clude forty-four books, niue pages Of
comical pencil drawings, two manuscripts
and the school books used by I<ipGDg,
when at Westward Ho, Bideford, Eng
land.
The other collection contained sixty
books, some of them revised editions,
ETC., and one manuscript, 1.-The Legend
of the Cedar Swamp written when the
author was nine years old and signed
81. R. Kipling."
No other author ever had such early
photographed fame. Literary fame and
photographed fame have always been
two distinct things before the nineteenth
century, and, indeed, until Kipling' 9
time. The first editions of Shakespeare,
Milton, Ben Jonson and Spencer were
disregarded in the auction room Until
the end of the eighteenth century, and
those of Shelley, Keats, Tennyson ard
the two Brownings were looked at with
unapprcciative eyes until fifteen years
ago. To Kipling literary and biblio-
graphical fame came together.
Scarcely ha nle Departmental Ditties'
and "Plain Ales From the Hills been
reprinted il England and America in all
kinds of editions, when collectors began
to collect his works. First of all they
searched for copies Of a small octave
5 volume called "Schoolboy Lyrics" Kip
hng's first book, printed for private Cir
culation by his father at Lahore, India,
in 1881. One copy that turned up came
to New York, where most book treas
ures usually come nowadays, and was
sold at private sale for about $780, Only
Two or three copies We're said to exist at
that time
Early in 1899 another was sold at
Sotheby's in London for the record price
OF 9lS5. This was without the brown pa
per covers, but a blank leaf before the
title page contained drawing by John
lockwood Kipling, the authors father
lew months later in the same year
three more copies turned up. two bringing
91Oe each. and one 976. One had been pre-
scented by Kiplings mother to a friend
and bore this inscription: Jeanne from
Alice, and second example was given
TO MAJ A. Harcourt' by u L. Kip
ing The latter is the copy in the fine
collection recently sold to New York
collector
a fifth copy was sold in July, 1899, for
5s9o. The t1ice has since deprecated
somewhat, and one copy, in miserable
CONDITION, has fetched low sum, thereby
creating the belief that the Kipling boom
was over. The depreciation. however
has been partly due to the fact that the
market was suddenly flooded with comics
and some persons have been led to be-
heve that he book was less rare than it
was said to be. 1t is now known that
only fifty copies were printed at the
civil and Military Press at Lahore and
We're mostly given away by Kipling's par
ents to their friends. Some of those have
met the fate of majority of privately
issued books, and a few, it is rumored
nave been destroyed by Kipling himself.
The volume contains twenty-three
poems, twenty-five of which can be
found by the curious in early Verse.
part of the Outward Bound" edition Of
ms works. The one exception is oThe
Night Before, which describes the re-
heetlons of criminal the night before
his execution
Inc second item in the KipIing list is
the United Services College Chronicle his
college paper, Bideford, Devon. 1884 of
which he a6itad
many issues of which he contributed
NO ", dated June 80, 1881, contains an
edltorlal announcement by Kipling. which
Is apparently his first printed piece of
prose There were 200 boys at the coll
lege when Kipling attended, and each
OF these received one copy. Only a few
compete sets are now in existence One
OF these has fetched e1O1 at auction.
In 1884 KipHng printed in India b;
second book, Echoes BY Two Wits. - ;,
the other author being his sister Beafrice
Echoes contains thirty-nine poens ~Sev.
en- 81: OF winch are attributed to Beatrice
Aping. Most of these are parodies of
certain celebrated poems. The book
Is now quite rare, and a copy was once
Solo Tor $25G. Copies are worth less now
~ ~ d 5000 copy viii easily bring half
tiiat sum. h1pling sent one CODY to his
Anna Mater inscribed ITO my Terv no.
pie and approved good masters.
III; IN 1850 appeared the "Quartette. the
Inlls 51 Annual of the Civil and Mill
tary Gazette by -Four Anglo-Indian Writ
efs; the four authors being Kipling. his
rather, mother and sister. This volume
Is notable for its literary interest. as
wen as Tor us rarity, as it contains "'The
Strange Ride of Morrowbie J1Illes,, and
The Phantom Rickshaw'
L ne next year, 1886, saw the publication
OF the book that brought Kipling his first
and Other Verses The first 4editfon
contained twenty-siX poems, taken from
the f1les of the Gazette. This has been
described by Kipling as his first book, .
winch 1t certainly is in the sense of its
beng his first book published in a regu.s
lar way, the two others having appear
ed for private use. The second edition
contained additional ditties and the au-
thor added Others to the third edition,
and finally the book came to London
with gilt top and a stiff back as
1<pling once said. But he ALWAYS loved
1T best, he wrote when it roughly APP
its author LAY awake of nights Noting
and Scheming how to write sopething
that should take with the English pub
lie.
Scarce, but not especially valuable are
his other Indian books, Soldiers Three.
which introduced the three musketeers.
Mulvaney, Ortheris and Learoyd; The
Story of the Gadsbys,'' I'm Black and
Phantom Rickshaw and Other Eerie
Tales, Wee Willie Wrinkle and Other
Child Stories" all issued in Wheelers
Indian Railway Library in 1883 at one
rupee each; "The City of Dreadful
Night, 1891, and Letters of Marque,"
1891
After Kipling left India and his fame
was rapidly Increasing, his Indian pub
fishers brought together in two volumes
some minor pieces, first contributed to
newspapers there. One of these bore the
title of The City of Dreadful Night
and Other Sketches, and the other was
.grhe Smith Administration Each u-oc