Something of Myself: For My Friends Known and Unknown.

KIPLING, Rudyard.

Item Number: 120976

London: MacMillan and Co., Limited, 1937.

First edition of Kipling’s autobiography. Octavo, original cloth, frontispiece. Fine in a near fine dust jacket.

Kipling began work on the autobiography on 1 August 1935, and was last reported to work on it (doing revisions) on 26 December of the same year. He died on 18 January 1936. The unfinished manuscript was edited and prepared for publication by his wife, Caroline Starr Balestier. After preliminary printing of selections from the text in a number of newspapers, the book was published by Macmillan, Kipling's established UK publisher, on 21 December 1937. Kipling had stated the intention to deal in this account with "his life from the point of view of his work". He thus focuses on describing the inspiration, genesis and workmanship of his literary creations while remaining reticent on most facets of his private life that are not directly connected to his works.