PUCK OF POOK'S HILL by Kipling, Rudyard - 1906

1906. [with 1906 dust jacket] London: Macmillan and Co., 1906. 4 pp ads dated "15.8.06". Original red cloth with Ganesha device (elephant-and-swastika) in gilt, with dust jacket.

First (English) Edition, published on the same day as the American. This is Kipling's version, in prose and verse, of the adventures of the mischievous sprite Robin Goodfellow (later continued in REWARDS AND FAIRIES). Though the American edition has four Arthur Rackham plates, this English one has 20 attractive illustrations by Harold R. Millar. The swastika (Indian symbol for peace and continuity) appears both on the front cover and on the half-title verso -- once clockwise and once counter-clockwise. This is a fine, bright copy -- with, atypically, no erosion of the gilt on the front cover medallion... because this copy has the very uncommon dust jacket. The list of Kipling titles on the jacket's rear panel is led by TRAFFICS AND DISCOVERIES, "Thirty-second Thousand" -- which is the proper title at the top of the list, but is not the earliest state (with no mention of which "thousand"); there is a still-later state, with PUCK added to the top of the list. The upper corner of the rear flap is clipped, which is odd because according to Richards there was no price there. The jacket's condition is very good-plus -- quite complete, but with some subtle repair at the top and middle of the spine panel. Quite uncommon with jacket. Richards A205; Stewart 306. Housed in a simple clamshell case.