Prefatory Note THIS little book has been written in the hope that it may minister to an intelligent appreciation of Mr. Kipling's prose and poetry. The world has never before witnessed the spectacle of a collected edition of an author's works issued within a dozen years of the date on his earliest title-page. A body of criticism is bound to grow up around the writings of a genius so commanding and brilliant. If the Primer serve as an unpretentious forerunner of this literature, it asks nothing more. In assigning stories and poems to their respective volumes, I have made reference not to the sumptuous and expensive Outward Bound edition, but to the Appleton editions of The Seven Seas and Many Inventions, Century Company editions of the Jungle Books, Doubleday & McClure editions of the Day's Work and From Sea to Sea, and Macmillan editions of the remaining books. It should be said, however, that several of the early collections of stories are in a few instances contained in one volume. For example, Macmillan has bound together Soldiers Three, The Story of the Gadsbys, and In Black and White under the general title Soldiers Three. But a tale from In Black and White is in this Primer assigned to that book, not to Soldiers Three. The Macmillan edition of Under the Deodars contains also The Phantom 'Rickshaw, and Other Tales and Wee Willie Winkie, and Other Stories. The same rule has been observed in this volume as in the other. In the Outward Bound edition the order of the tales is different, the contents having been rearranged by Mr. Kipling on a more logical plan. Of the two volumes devoted to the Jungle Books, for instance, the first contains all the tales in which Mowgli figures. It very properly concludes with “In the Rukh," transferred from Many Inventions. The second volume contains the stories in the Jungle Books which have no reference to Mowgli, such as "Quiquern," "The White Seal," and "Rikki-TikkiTavi." "Under Soldiers Three will be found all the events in which Mulvaney, Ortheris, and Learoyd were concerned, followed by other military stories. In Black and White covers tales of native life in India, and The Phantom 'Rickshaw those which deal with matters more or less between the two worlds." Life's Handicap and Many Inventions do not appear among the titles of the Outward Bound edition, the stories in those books being distributed among several volumes. Appended to the abstracts of stories and ballads, in Chapter Three, will be found, in many cases, These brief criticisms from well-known authorities. are included for their suggestiveness rather than for any value as final estimates. Indeed, the editor has been at no pains to add them to all or even to most of the outlines, nor has he in any case endeavored to harmonize them with one another. While in the main they are astute, and doubtless trustworthy, in many instances they will be found chiefly to illustrate the fact that opinions even of high authorities are merely personal estimates and frequently prove to be very wide of the mark. I wish to thank the assistants in the Boston Public and Harvard College libraries for numerous courtesies, and especially to thank Mr. Capen, Librarian of the Haverhill (Mass.) City Library, for his generous aid and coöperation. TILTON, N.H., May 1, 1899. SECOND NOTE. As this book is on the point of going to press (July 1), there appears an inexpensive set of Mr. Kipling's works in fifteen copyrighted by the author. volumes, authorized and Except for the inclusion of From Sea to Sea in two volumes and the addition of Departmental Ditties to the volume containing Barrack-Room Ballads, the contents and arrangement of this edition call for no changes in the Kipling Primer. Life's Handicap and Many Inven |