The Seven Seas
By
Author of Many Inventions , Barrack-Room Ballads , The Jungle Book , Etc.
Published By D. Appleton and Company
1897
120 Years Old
The Seven Seas is a volume of poems by Rudyard Kipling (1865-1936), which he dedicated to the
city of Bombay , India ( Mumbai ).
** Very Good+ Condition **
Just a little wear at the binding edges. The binding is otherwsie quite nice, with some fading of the spine.
The Contents includes:
Dedication to Bombay
Biographical Information:
Rudyard Kipling
New York
5.25" x 7.5"
vi + 209 Pages + Publisher's Catalogue.
Hardcover.
Decorated Cloth Binding.
Stamped & Gilt Binding Decoration.
Top Page Edge Gilt.
Rudyard Kipling, English author and poet, was born in Bombay , British India , and is best known for his works The Jungle
Book (1894), The Second Jungle Book (1895), Just So Stories (1902), and Puck of Pook's Hill (1906); his novel, Kim (1901);
his poems, including Mandalay (1890), Gunga Din (1890), If— (1910) and Ulster 1912 (1912); and his many short stories.
[ see biographical information below ]
[ see the photos ]
The Hinges are Tight.
No markings.
Former owner's name on the front endpaper ( in pencil. " K. L. Yancey " )
No other writing.
Small ( nickel sized ), light stain at the upper corner of the last few pages ( minor ).
The Pages are otherwise Clean, Bright and in Very Good Condition, throughout.
A Song of the English
The First Chantey
The Last Chantey
McAndrew's Hymn
The Miracles
The Native Born
Rhyme of the Three Sailors
Song of the Banjo
The Derelict
Anchor Song
The Last Rhyme of True Thomas
The Story of Ung
The Three Decker
An American
The Mary Gloster
Sestina of the Tramp Royal
Soldier An' Sailor Too
Back to the Army Again
The Men that Fought at Minden
Cholera Camp
The Mother Lodge
The Sergeant's Wedding
The Shut-Ete Sentry
Bill 'Awkins
Etc.
Carefully Packed for Shipment to the Buyer.
Have A Look At My Many Other Books.
-------------------------------------
Rudyard Kipling (1865-1936)
Awarded the Nobel Prize in Literature (1907)
English short-story writer, novelist and poet, who celebrated the heroism of British colonial soldiers in India and Burma .
"It is true that Mr Kipling shouts, 'Hurrah for the Empire!' and puts out his tongue at her enemies," Virginia Woof wrote in 1920.
Kipling was the first Englishman to receive the Nobel Prize for Literature (1907).
His most popular works include THE JUNGLE BOOK (1894) with such unforgettable characters as Mowgli, Baloo, and
Bagheera. The book was adapted into screen by Zoltan Korda and André de Toth in 1942. Walt Disney's cartoon version was
produced in the 1960s.
"O thirty million English that babble of England's might,
Behold there are twenty heroes who lack their food to-night;
Our children's children are lisping to "honor the charge they made - "
And we leave to the streets and the workhouse the charge of the Light Brigade!"
(from 'The Last of the Light Brigade', 1891)
Rudyard Kipling was born in Bombay, India, where his father, John Lockwood Kipling, was an arts and crafts teacher at the
Jeejeebhoy School of Art. His mother, the former Alice Macdonald, was a sister-in-law of the painter Edward Burne-Jones.
India was at that time ruled by the British. Ruddy, as Kipling was affectionally called, was brought up by an ayah, who taught
him Hidustani as his first language.
Oh, East is East, and West is West, and never the twain shall meet,
Till Earth and Sky stand presently at God's great Judgment Seat;
But there is neither East nor West, Border, nor Breed, nor Birth,
When two strong men stand face to face, tho' they come from the ends of the earth!
(from 'The Ballad of East and West')
Kipling's writings at the age of thirteen were influenced by the pre-Raphaelites - and he also had family connections to them:
two of his mother's sisters were married into the pre-Raphaelite community. At the age of six he was taken to England by his
parents and left for five years at a foster home at Southsea. Kipling, who was not accustomed to traditional English beatings,
expressed later his feeling of the treatment in the short story 'Baa Baa, Black Sheep', in the novel THE LIGHT THAT FAILED
(1890), and in his autobiography (1937).
In 1878 Kipling entered United Services College, a boarding school in North Devon. It was an expensive institution that
specialized in training for entry into military academies. His poor eyesight and mediocre results as a student ended hopes
about military career. However, these years Kipling recalled in lighter tone in one of his most popular books, STALKY & CO
(1899). Kipling's bookishness separated him from the other students; he had to wear glasses and was nicknamed "Gigger",
for gig (carriage) for lamps. However, Kipling wrote about the non-conformist Headmaster, Cormell Price: "Many of us loved
the Head for what he had done for us, but I owed him more than all of them put together and I think I loved him even more than
they did."
Kipling returned to India in 1882, where he worked as a journalist in Lahore for Civil and Military Gazette (1882-87) and an
assistant editor and overseas correspondent in Allahabad for Pioneer (1887-89). The stories written during his last two years
in India were collected in THE PHANTOM RICKSHAW. It that included the famous story 'The Man Who Would Be a King.' In
the story a white trader, Daniel Dravot sets himself up as a god and king in Kafristan, but a woman discovers that he is a
human and betrays him. His companion, Peachey Carnehan, manages to escape to tell the tale, but Dravot is killed.
Kilping's short stories and verses gained success in the late 1880s in England, to which he returned in 1889, and was hailed
as a literary heir to Charles Dickens. When he toured Japan he criticized the Japanese middle-class for its eagerness to
adopt western fashions and values. "... I was a barbarian, and no true Sahib," he wrote. Between the years 1889 and 1892,
Kipling lived in London and published LIFE'S HANDICAP (1891), a collection of Indian stories that included 'The Man Who
Was,' and BARRACK-ROOM BALLADS, a collection of poems that included 'Gunga Din,' a praise of a Hindu water carrier for
a British Indian regiment. Wellington had viewed the private soldier as "the very scum of the earth", but Kipling portrayed him
as the embodiment of British virtue
In 1892 Kipling married Caroline Starr Balestier, the sister of an American publisher and writer, with whom he collaborated a
novel, THE NAULAHKA (1892). The young couple moved to the United States. Kipling was dissatisfied with the life in Vermont,
and after the death of his daughter, Josephine, Kipling took his family back to England and settled in Burwash, Sussex.
According to the author's sister, Kipling became a "harder man" - but also his political beliefs started to stiffen. Kipling's
marriage was not in all respects happy. The author was dominated by his wife who had troubles to accept all aspects of her
husband's character. During these restless years Kipling produced MANY INVENTIONS (1893), JUNGLE BOOK (1894), a
collection of animal stories for children, THE SECOND JUNGLE BOOK (1895), and THE SEVEN SEAS (1896).
"England is a most marvellous country, but one is not, till one knows the eccentricities of large land-owners, trained to accept
kangaroos, zebras, or beavers as part of its landscape." (from 'Steam Tactics' in Traffics and Discoveries, 1904)
Widely regarded as unofficial poet laureate, Kipling refused this and many honors, among them the Order of Merit. During the
Boer War in 1899 Kipling spent several months in South Africa . In 1902 he moved to Sussex, also spending time in South
Africa, where he was given a house by Cecil Rhodes, the influential British colonial statesman. In 1901 appeared KIM, widely
considered Kipling's best novel. The story, set in India, depicted adventures of an orphaned son of a sergeant in an Irish
regiment. His own children appeared in the stories as Dan and Una - the death of "Dan" (John) in the WW I darkened author's
later life. John Kipling was a brave young officer, unspoilt by his father's fame.
Kim (1901) - Kimball O'Hara is the orphan son of an Irish colour-sergeant and a nursemaid in a colonel's family. Kim meets a
Tibetian Lama and attaches himself to the old man as a discipline. Working for the British Secret Service, Kim carries a vital
message to Colonel Creighton in Umballa and is helped by the Lame on his journey. The chaplain of his father's old regiment
recognizes Kim and he is dispatched to the scool of Anglo-Indian children at Lucknow. Kim rejoins the Lama in an expedition
to the hill country of the North and his destiny is left undecided - the life of an adventurer and the values of contemplation both
attract him. - Behind the story of Kim is perhaps true characters - Peter Hopkirk mentions in his book Quest for Kim (1997) a
certain Tim Doolan, the son of an Irish sergeant.
Soon after Kipling had received the Nobel Prize, his output of fiction and poems began to decline. In 1923 Kipling published
THE IRISH GUARDS IN THE GREAT WAR, a history of his son's regiment. Between the years 1922 and 1925 he was a
rector at the University of St. Andrews.
Rudyard Kipling died on January 18, 1936 in London, and was buried in Poet's Corner at Westminster Abbey.
Kipling's autobiography, SOMETHING OF MYSELF, appeared posthumously in 1937.
Kipling did his best to obtain and destroy letters he had sent - to protect his private life. His widow continued the practice but a
number of his letters survived and have been published.
In 1884 he wrote to Edith Macdonald about his visit to an Afghan Khan, Kizil Bas, who had to stay in Lahore as a prisoner - the
Afghan Sirdars had fought against the British. The Khan asks Kipling to write to his "Khubber-Ke-Kargus" (newspaper) and
help him to gain again his freedom.
He throws a bundle of money to Kipling who refuses to take it. Then the Khan offers a Cashmiri girl, and Kipling loses his
temper. Finally he promises three beautiful horses.
Kipling resists the temptation, they smoke, drink coffee, and Kipling writes of the city. "I haven't told anyone here of the bribery
business because, if I did, some unscrupulous beggar might tell the Khan that he would help him and so lay hold of the
money, the lady or, worse still, the horses.
Besides I may able to help the old boy respectably and without any considerations."