The Five Nations.

KIPLING, Rudyard.

$400.00

Item Number: 120150

London: Methuen and Co, 1903.

Large paper edition of Kipling’s notable poetry collection. Large octavo, original quarter parchment over paper-covered boards. One of 200 copies on handmade paper. In fine condition. Housed in a custom half morocco and chemise case.

First published in 1903, Kipling's The Five Nations included a number of new poems as well as several that had been previously published (notably Recessional of 1897). In 1903, the United Kingdom consisted of four nations: England, Ireland, Scotland and Wales. It was soon suggested that Kipling's "five nations" were the "five free nations of Canada, Australia, New Zealand, South Africa [i.e. Cape Colony], and 'the islands of the sea' [i.e. the British Isles]" - all dominated by Britons; and except in the last case, by recent settlers. That suggestion was endorsed some one hundred years later.