KIPLING. RUDYARD. — IF.

Doubleday, Doran and Company. New York. 1924 REPRINT SEPARATE EDITION (U. S). Originally published in 1910. Oblong 8vo. (4.4 x 6.4 inches). 8 double leaves, uncut at the top. Each double leaf has a green decorative border, the text printed in black. Half title has "IF" printed in black within an ornamental green panel, the same printed onto the front board, with the addition of the author's name and a floral decoration. A remarkably clean and bright copy in original off white boards with decorative green border and black lettering and decoration to the front panel. Small blindstamp of Nicholson's Bookshop, Richmond, Ind, on both blank free endpapers. A fine copy in the very rare original plain white paper dustwrapper. The wrapper has a few small closed tears to the edges, but without any loss and it is complete. An attractive copy of this uncommon reprint edition of Kipling's most enduring work of verse in the rare dustwrapper. In 36 years of dealing in rare English literature this is only the second copy I have seen in the dustwrapper. A poll taken by the BBC in the UK in 2005 voted it as Britain's favourite Poem, polling 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.