IF. by KIPLING. RUDYARD - 1910

Doubleday, Page and Company. New York. 1910. FIRST SEPARATE EDITION (U. S). IN PUBLISHERS DELUX LEATHER BINDING. Precedes the first U. K separate edition by 4 years. Oblong 8vo. (4.4 x 6.4 inches). 8 double leaves, uncut at the top. The pages are sewn in with the original yellow cord. Each double leaf has a green rule and dot border, the text printed in black with green initial letters. Half title has "IF" printed in green within an ornamental black panel, the same stamped in gilt onto the front board, with the addition of the author's name. This version with the green colour printing is Richards' variant a. The Publishers note on page 5 appears in four different variants, with priority unknown, and this copy has variant iii. In the very rare original delux publishers dark green morocco leather binding with gilt ruling and lettering to the front panel (Richards binding variant i). Crack to the hinge of the front blank endpapers, but the book still firmly in the casing, otherwise a fine example of this lovely volume. An attractive copy of this uncommon little book. ------ Published (probably November 1910) very shortly after the Poem first appeared in the book Rewards and Fairies (October 1910), this separate publication was issued to capitalise on the huge, and instant, popularity of what has become Kipling's most enduring work of verse. A poll taken by the BBC in the UK in 2005 voted it as Britain's favourite Poem, poling twice as many votes as the number 2 choice, Lord Tennyson's The Lady of Shallot. Originally written in 1895, IF was inspired by the actions of Dr. Leander Starr Jameson, a British Officer whose forces were defeated by the Boers in 1895, but who was portrayed as a victorious hero by the British press, the poem is a powerful masterclass in maintaining the British stiff upper lip. ---- David Alan Richards. Rudyard Kipling. A bibliography. A244. Binding variant i. Text Variants ii, a.