Soldier Tales and 'Captains Courageous': A Story of the Grand Banks

London: Macmillan and Co., 1896-1898. Cloth. Very Good. 7.5" by 5.5". A. S. Hartrick; I. W. Taber. Two smart early printings of the first editions of these works by the popular author Rudyard Kipling. The second printing (first reprint) of the first edition of Soldier Tales, published November 1896, a month after the first edition, and the third printing (second reprint) of the first edition of 'Captains Courageous', published January 1898, three months after the first edition. Both bound in the publisher's original cloth bindings, with pictorial gilt to the front boards. All edges gilt. Illustrated to Soldier Tales with a frontispiece and twenty further plates. Illustrated to 'Captains Courageous' with a frontispiece and twenty-one plates. Collated, complete. Two works from the popular author Rudyard Kipling, a prolific writer of poems, novels, and short stories, best known for his novel 'The Jungle Book'. Soldier Tales consists of seven short stories, including With the Main Guard, The Drums of the Fore and Aft, The Man Who Was, The Courting of Dinah Shadd, and The Madness of Private Ortheris. Illustrated throughout by the Scottish painter A. S. Hartrick (1864-1950). Captains Courageous: A Story of the Grand Banks is a novel which follows the adventures of Harvey Cheyne Jr., the spoiled son of a railroad tycoon, after he is saved from drowning by a Portuguese fisherman in the north Atlantic. Illustrated throughout by I. W. Taber (1830-1912). This novel originally appeared as a serialisation in McClure's. In the publisher's original cloth bindings. Externally fairly smart, with some fading to the spines, and light shelf wear to the extremities and head and tail of the spines. Spines are a little slanted. Front hinge to Soldier Tales is slightly strained but is held firmly. Internally, firmly bound. To Soldier Tales, pages are bright and clean, apart from the odd spot to the first and last few pages. To 'Captains Courageous', pages are bright but spotted throughout. Very Good