Kim, Prize Binding, The Dominions Edition, Illustrated

Kim, Prize Binding, The Dominions Edition, Illustrated. 12mo.(4.75" x 7.25") 1920 Prize Binding of The Church of England Preparatory Grammar School. 413 pp. London: Macmillan and Co. Full navy polished leather with fancy gilt rule framing each board, large gilt school emblem centered to upper board. Spine with five gilt decorated raised bands, gilt lettering to red leather in second compartment, heavy gilt frames and centered floral gilt device to all other compartments. All edges marbled, marbled endpapers. Very minor edgewear, corners lightly rubbed, rear board slightly splayed, spine very lightly sun-faded. Small bit of rubbing to head and foot of spine, otherwise fine. Prize certificate of the Church of England Preparatory Grammar School to the front pastedown. Light foxing to title page, all others look clean. A beautiful Prize Binding for a great book. Ten illustrations by J. Lockwood Kipling. Joseph Rudyard Kipling (/ˈrʌdjərd/ RUD-yərd; 30 December 1865 – 18 January 1936) was an English journalist, novelist, poet and short-story writer. He was born in British India, which inspired much of his work. Kipling's works of fiction include the Jungle Book duology (The Jungle Book, 1894; The Second Jungle Book, 1895), Kim (1901), the Just So Stories (1902) and many short stories, including "The Man Who Would Be King" (1888). His poems include "Mandalay" (1890), "Gunga Din" (1890), "The Gods of the Copybook Headings" (1919), "The White Man's Burden" (1899) and "If—" (1910). He is seen as an innovator in the art of the short story. His children's books are classics; one critic noted "a versatile and luminous narrative gift". Kipling in the late 19th and early 20th centuries was among the United Kingdom's most popular writers. Henry James said "Kipling strikes me personally as the most complete man of genius, as distinct from fine intelligence, that I have ever known." In 1907, he was awarded the Nobel Prize in Literature, as the first English-language writer to receive the prize, and at 41, its youngest recipient to date. He was also sounded out for the British Poet Laureateship and several times for a knighthood, but declined both. Following his death in 1936, his ashes were interred at Poets' Corner in Westminster Abbey. Kipling's subsequent reputation has changed with the political and social climate of the age. The contrasting views of him continued for much of the 20th century. The literary critic Douglas Kerr wrote that Kipling "is still an author who can inspire passionate disagreement and his place in literary and cultural history is far from settled. But as the age of the European empires recedes, he is recognized as an incomparable, if controversial, interpreter of how empire was experienced. That, and an increasing recognition of his extraordinary narrative gifts, make him a force to be reckoned with."