ABAFT THE FUNNEL by Kipling, Rudyard - 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 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 -- leading Richards to propose that perhaps all the jackets started out on red-lettered copies -- although they still carry the $1.50 initial price. The volume is bright and fine (essentially as new); the dust jacket is just about fine as well. Richards A227; Stewart 324; Livingston 328.