Rewards and Fairies by Kipling, Rudyard - 1910

London: Macmillan & Co., 1910 Illustrated with four black and white plates by Frank Craig. First edition, first printing. Publisher's red cloth, spine lettered in gilt, with the author's Ganesha decoration (Hindu elephant deity) in gilt to the front board, top edge gilt. A very good or better copy with some rubbing to the extremities, wear to the corners and spine ends, gilt still bright. Internally, only some light scattered foxing and a small stain to the fore-edge of the terminal leaves. Overall, a bright and attractive copy. Livingston 341. Rewards and Fairies is a work of historical fantasy, which includes an assortment of short stories and poetry united by a contemporary narrative. Each of the short stories are both preceded and followed by an accompanying poem. The novel is a continuation of the characters and their adventures from Kipling's Puck of Pook's Hill (1906); although Rewards and Fairies was published four years later, its plot is set only a year after Puck of Pook's Hill. In both works, the child protagonists encounter a variety of figures from British history in a series of fantastical adventures. Although he wrote it in 1895, Kipling's beloved poem "If-" was first published in Rewards and Fairies. Kipling was inspired to write the poem by Leander Starr Jameson, British military leader of the failed Jameson raid that lead to the Second Anglo-Boer War. . First Edition. Hard Cover. Very Good.