# Is "Just So Stories" by Rudyard Kipling a First Edition?

> **Quick answer.** A first edition of Just So Stories by Rudyard Kipling (Macmillan and Co., Limited, 1902) is identified by: London: Macmillan and Co., Limited, 1902; the title page reads "Just So Stories For Little Children By Rudyard Kipling Illustrated by the Author London Macmillan and Co., Limited 1902 All rights reserved". The census claim is confirmed: the London Macmillan edition of October 1902 is the true first.

**Checklist — a true first has these:**
- London: Macmillan and Co., Limited, 1902; the title page reads "Just So Stories For Little Children By Rudyard Kipling Illustrated by the Author London Macmillan and Co., Limited 1902 All rights reserved"
- Quarto, published October 1902, with 22 full-page plates by Kipling and his own vignettes through the text
- Livingston's collation (no
- 267): 4 leaves, pp
- 252 — blank leaf, fore-title, title, contents (4 leaves); text and plates pp
- 1-249; printer's device p
- Publisher imprint reads Macmillan and Co., Limited

| | |
|---|---|
| Author | Rudyard Kipling |
| Publisher | Macmillan and Co., Limited |
| Year | 1902 |
| True first | American edition |
| Format | Children's / illustrated |
| Key point | London: Macmillan and Co., Limited, 1902; the title page reads "Just So Stories For Little Children By Rudyard Kipling Illustrated by the… |
| Book-club edition exists? | No |

## Points of issue
London: Macmillan and Co., Limited, 1902; the title page reads "Just So Stories For Little Children By Rudyard Kipling Illustrated by the Author London Macmillan and Co., Limited 1902 All rights reserved". Quarto, published October 1902, with 22 full-page plates by Kipling and his own vignettes through the text. Livingston's collation (no. 267): 4 leaves, pp. 252 — blank leaf, fore-title, title, contents (4 leaves); text and plates pp. 1-249; printer's device p. 251. Bound in pictorial red cloth, the animal design stamped on both covers in black and white, spine lettered and ornamented in white. The first impression exists in two binding states: on the first the white blocking failed to adhere and characteristically flakes from spine and covers; it was superseded during the first impression by a more stably blocked binding on which the white decoration survives. Both states are first impression — the flaking is a state marker, not a condition defect, and a clean white-blocked copy is not thereby a later printing. Issued in a buff pictorial dust jacket blocked in red. There is no number line or printing statement; identification rests on the 1902 Macmillan title page and the collation.

## Is this the true first?
The census claim is confirmed: the London Macmillan edition of October 1902 is the true first. Livingston's bibliography (1927) enters it in her chronology of first editions as "1902: Just So Stories, 257", and records at no. 268 that a copy of the London edition was sent to Doubleday, Page & Co. in New York from which to print the American edition — establishing English priority on documentary grounds rather than inference. The first American edition (New York: Doubleday, Page & Company, 1902) is separately collected: its title page carries an ornament before "New York Doubleday, Page & Company, 1902", and Livingston's collation gives 4 leaves, pp. 250, 1 leaf — text pp. 1-249 with a terminal blank and no printer's device, where the London issue has one at p. 251. Doubleday also issued a copyright broadside of extracts and four plates (Livingston no. 266), advertised September 1902; it is a copyright-deposit item, not an edition, and does not disturb London's priority. A first Canadian edition (Toronto: George S. Morang & Co., Limited, 1902), in cream cloth stamped in black, is also recorded.

## Telling it from reprints & book-club editions
No book-club edition is documented for 1902. The chief reprint traps are Macmillan's own later impressions from the same setting, on which the 1902 title-page date can persist — check the title-page verso for a reprint or impression statement. The second binding state is routinely mis-sold as a later printing when it is in fact a first-impression state, and conversely a flaked copy is sometimes written off as merely damaged. Doubleday, Page reissued the text in 1912 with new pictures by Joseph M. Gleeson (Livingston no. 269), in tan cloth lettered and decorated in brown — an illustrated reissue, not a first. Modern facsimile and print-on-demand issues marketed as "The Original 1902 Edition With Illustrations" are common and are not the 1902 book.

## Source
New Mexico Literacy Project — Is *Just So Stories* by Rudyard Kipling a first edition? https://newmexicoliteracyproject.org/first-edition/just-so-stories
CC BY 4.0. Part of the Canonical First-Edition Points of Issue dataset (https://newmexicoliteracyproject.org/api/first-edition-titles.json). Last reviewed 2026-07-04.