signed
1902 · London
by Kipling, Rudyard
London: Macmillan and Co., Limited, 1902. First Edition, Third Printing. Very Good. First edition, third printing, published just two months after the first printing. A fantastic association copy, signed by Rudyard Kipling on the title page and inscribed to "Janet Aitken from her obliged and obedient servant the author Jul. 1911," beneath which Kipling has struck through his printed name and signed below it. Then three years old, aristocrat and socialite Janet Gladys Aitken (later Campbell, Montagu, and Kidd), was the daughter of Kipling's close friend Max Aitken, Lord Beaverbrook. Beaverbrook was a highly influential Canadian-British press magnate and politician and his daughter Janet grew up with her family entertaining powerful and influential figures such as Kipling, Sir Winston Churchill, and David Lloyd George at their family home. Beaverbrook met Kipling in 1910 after he relocated his family to Britain from Canada; Kipling advised Beaverbrook on the purchase of Cherkely Court, his Surrey mansion and later even became godfather to Beaverbrook's youngest son, Peter. In her autobiography, Janet recalls Kipling, whom as a child she nicknamed "Mr Sad": "He had a drooping moustache and never seemed to smile...I felt a bit sorry for him but never said so because he never seemed to notice I was there...He would stand staring soulfully at us as we clattered past...I was always pleased to see him". Ultimately a rift developed between Beaverbrook and Kipling, who endorsed Irish Home Rule, and despite the efforts of Janet and Kipling's daughter Elsie, the two never reconciled. Bound in publisher's original red pictorial cloth stamped in black and white. Very Good with fading to spine and bottom of rear cover, extremities a little worn and frayed, front hinge tender and rear hinge partly cracked but holding, contents mildly foxed throughout; with Beaverbrook's family bookplate to the front pastedown. Signed copies of this title are rare, especially those with such a close association and inscribed; just six other inscribed copies are known. Housed in a custom red cloth chemise case.
(Inventory #: 140944771)