Letters to the Family
Toronto: Macmillan Company, 1908.


Letters to the Family
Toronto: Macmillan Company, 1908. First edition. Original printed wraps, measuring 170 x 117mm and complete in 72 pages. Chipping, wear, and staining to spine and wrap edges; splitting to both joints near the foot of spine. Light toning internally, else unmarked. A scarce piece. Housed in a custom slipcase with chemise, with mottling and wear to cloth.
Written during a 1907 trip to Canada, Letters to the Family captures the author's commitment to the British Empire and those who are his "family" through it -- indeed, it is among Kipling's most overt and bare examples of Imperialist propaganda. "These articles are scarcely a travelogue, rather a series of political essays on matters Imperial" and an assertion of Britain's so-called civilizing influence on those nations it colonized (Kipling Society). (Item #5446)