WITH THE NIGHT MAIL, A STORY OF 2000 A.D.

This is a first edition of With the Night Mail: A Story of 2000 A.D., by the British author Rudyard Kipling. In 1905, Kipling began serializing this science fiction novella in the American monthly McClure's Magazine.

The story follows the exploits of an intercontinental mail dirigible battling foul weather, while a planet-wide Aerial Board of Control enforces a rigid system of command and control, not only in the skies (which are increasingly crowded with every manner of zeppelin) but also in world affairs.

Kipling got so excited by his own utopian vision that he wrote and placed phony ads in McClure's for dirigible and aeronautical products. He also wrote and placed phony news items, e.g. that the Aerial Board of Control outlawed war in 1967 — by "reserving to every nation the right of waging war so long as it does not interfere with traffic and all that that implies."

In 1909, Doubleday Page gathered all of this together--the story, the ads, and the phony articles, then added reviews and correspondence. It had the story illustrated by the commercial artist Frank Leyendecker and the painter Henry Reuterdahl and published it all as one book.

This is a copy of that book.

In total, it's about 100 pages, maybe 125 (they're not all numbered). There is minor wear to the corners and edges of the book. There is a white smear on the cover, which you can see in photo #1--it would be worth it to take it to a professional to have the covers cleaned. There's a small mark on the outside of pages 27-29 and a tiny mark on the outside of pages 11 and 12 and a larger mark on the outside of pages 53-55. Also, someone cut out one of the front endpapers--it would have been blank.

Other than that, the book is perfect. Thick, high-quality paper. The pages are nice and bright, the binding is tight and the illustrations are beautiful.

Note: Image #1 is a scan.