WITH THE NIGHT MAIL. A Story of 2000 A.D.
Illustrated in color by Frank X. Leyendecker and H. Reuterdahl. New York: Doubleday, Page & Company, 1909. Original dark blue-green cloth pictorially decorated in silver and gilt.
First Edition of what is often labeled as Kipling's only science fiction tale -- a vision of a night-time mail run from London to Québec aboard a dirigible in the year 2000 (so much for RK's forecasting abilities). Six months later in the same year, this tale was collected in ACTIONS AND REACTIONS, without illustrations. Though there exists a single copy of a proof for an English edition of WITH THE NIGHT MAIL, no separate English edition was published.
This was quite a production: four full-page color plates, color pictorial endpapers, text written on the rectos only of each leaf, handsome binding with gold and silver; the "Advertising Section" at the end is not ads for books bound in by the binder, but rather it is part of the book -- promoting aeronautical equipment contemplated to exist in the year 2000. This is a magnificent copy, fine and bright. Richards A217; Stewart 322. Item #15241
Price: $350.00