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RUDYARD KIPLING’S VERSE — DEFINITIVE EDITIONGarden City, New York: Doubleday, Doran & Company, 1945Signed Maurin Full Morocco Leather Fine BindingElaborately Gilt Spine • Marbled Endpapers • Top Edge Gilt
KIPLING, Rudyard. Rudyard Kipling’s Verse: Definitive Edition. Garden City, NY: Doubleday, Doran & Company, 1945.
A substantial and highly decorative posthumous printing of Kipling’s collected verse, beautifully rebound in full blue-green crushed morocco leather by the French binder Maurin.
The standard Doubleday, Doran issue was published in cloth. This copy was subsequently transformed into an elegant private-library binding, with a richly gilt floral spine, gilt-ruled covers, decorated turn-ins, marbled endpapers, top edge gilt, and purple silk ribbon marker. The binding is signed “MAURIN” in gilt on the rear turn-in.
The Binding
Bound in full crushed morocco leather, originally navy-blue and now attractively mellowed toward blue-green with even light exposure. The restrained boards are framed in gilt; the spine is the visual centerpiece, divided by raised bands and elaborately ornamented in gilt with flowing foliate and arabesque designs. The balance of quiet covers and an exuberantly decorated spine gives the volume exceptional shelf appeal.
- Signed MAURIN binding
- Full crushed morocco leather
- Raised bands
- Richly gilt floral and arabesque spine decoration
- Gilt lettering and gilt-ruled boards
- Decorated gilt turn-ins and dentelles
- Blue marbled endpapers
- Purple silk ribbon marker
- Top edge gilt
Maurin-bound copies of this edition are known in both half- and full-morocco. This is the more desirable full-morocco treatment, with unusually elaborate spine tooling. A specialist bookseller currently offers a comparable 1945 full-Maurin copy at $300; this example presents very attractively. Charles Agvent listing
The Definitive Edition
First published in 1940, four years after Kipling’s death, the Definitive Edition gathers the full range of his poetry in one substantial volume. It includes such enduring poems as “If—,” “Mandalay,” “Gunga Din,” “Recessional,” “Tommy,” “Danny Deever,” “The Ballad of East and West,” and “The Gods of the Copybook Headings.”
More than a selection of famous poems, it is a broad survey of Kipling’s career: India, military life, the sea, childhood, machinery, war, remembrance, politics, mythology, and empire.
Condition
Very good to near fine.
Binding tight, square, and sound; leather remains supple and handsome, with light rubbing and minor surface marks consistent with age. The spine has evenly mellowed in color, while its gilt remains bright and sharply defined. Interior clean and bright, with no significant foxing noted.
Bookplate on front pastedown, laid over evidence of an earlier removed bookplate. Small bookseller notation on a blank leaf. Please examine photographs carefully, as they form part of the description.
A superb shelf-ready fine binding—an imposing edition of Kipling’s poetry made distinctly more collectible by its signed Maurin full morocco leather binding.
