# Is "Kim" by Rudyard Kipling a First Edition?

> **Quick answer.** A first edition of Kim by Rudyard Kipling (Doubleday, Page & Co., 1901) is identified by: Two editions, both collected; name both. Census claim CORRECTED.

**Checklist — a true first has these:**
- Two editions, both collected; name both
- US (true first): Doubleday, Page & Co., New York, 1 October 1901 — green ribbed cloth, lettered in gilt with a boat stamped in black on the front board and spine, top edge gilt, other edges untrimmed; ten black-and-white plates including the frontispiece, reproducing bas-reliefs by the author's father, John Lockwood Kipling
- English: Macmillan & Co., London, 17 October 1901 — red cloth, spine lettered in gilt, with Kipling's gilt 'Ganesha' roundel on the front board (the elephant's head with trunk curled down holding a lotus, and a small right-facing swastika set between the forehead and the enclosing circle), top edge gilt; illustrated from J. L. Kipling's bas-reliefs
- Richards A174
- Stewart 254
- Collation of the Macmillan is given by most ABAA/ABA cataloguers as [vi], 413, [2] pp., the final two pages being publisher's advertisements at the rear, and one dealer source treats those 2 pp. of ads as a first-issue point; a further catalogue gives 443 pp., so exact collation should be treated as unsettled pending the bibliography
- Publisher imprint reads Doubleday, Page & Co.

| | |
|---|---|
| Author | Rudyard Kipling |
| Publisher | Doubleday, Page & Co. |
| Year | 1901 |
| True first | US edition |
| Format | Hardcover (trade) |
| Key point | Two editions, both collected; name both |
| Book-club edition exists? | — |

## Points of issue
Two editions, both collected; name both. US (true first): Doubleday, Page & Co., New York, 1 October 1901 — green ribbed cloth, lettered in gilt with a boat stamped in black on the front board and spine, top edge gilt, other edges untrimmed; ten black-and-white plates including the frontispiece, reproducing bas-reliefs by the author's father, John Lockwood Kipling. English: Macmillan & Co., London, 17 October 1901 — red cloth, spine lettered in gilt, with Kipling's gilt 'Ganesha' roundel on the front board (the elephant's head with trunk curled down holding a lotus, and a small right-facing swastika set between the forehead and the enclosing circle), top edge gilt; illustrated from J. L. Kipling's bas-reliefs. Richards A174; Stewart 254. Collation of the Macmillan is given by most ABAA/ABA cataloguers as [vi], 413, [2] pp., the final two pages being publisher's advertisements at the rear, and one dealer source treats those 2 pp. of ads as a first-issue point; a further catalogue gives 443 pp., so exact collation should be treated as unsettled pending the bibliography. Jackets on the Macmillan are of the greatest rarity; a first-state jacket is reported to list fourteen Uniform Edition titles on the rear panel with KIM at the head carrying no printing statement and THE NAULAHKA at the foot — this is single-sourced dealer cataloguing and is provisional.

## Is this the true first?
Census claim CORRECTED. The census asserts the London Macmillan as the true first and calls the US 'arguably first by days'; both halves are wrong. The Kipling Society's Readers' Guide, corroborated by dealer consensus, gives Doubleday, Page & Co. (New York) 1 October 1901 and Macmillan & Co. (London) 17 October 1901 — the American edition precedes by sixteen days. That is a documented two-week interval, not an arguable matter of days, and it makes the Doubleday the true first edition. The Macmillan is the first English edition and is by a wide margin the more sought-after and more finely produced of the two, which is likely what the census note was reaching for; it should be described as the first English edition rather than the first. Serialisation preceded both books: McClure's Magazine (US) December 1900–October 1901, and Cassell's Magazine (UK) January–November 1901.

## Telling it from reprints & book-club editions
A 'Second American Edition' followed within 1901 per the Kipling Society, and later Doubleday, Page and Doubleday, Doran printings are common. The principal reprint traps are Macmillan's long-running Uniform and Pocket editions, published and frequently reprinted from 1899 into the 1950s: they carry the same Ganesha device and red or blue cloth but bear a series designation and a later date. Note carefully that the Ganesha/swastika device is a dating aid and not a first-edition point — use of the emblem ceased in the early 1930s once the symbol was appropriated in Germany, so its presence establishes only that a copy predates roughly 1933.

## Source
New Mexico Literacy Project — Is *Kim* by Rudyard Kipling a first edition? https://newmexicoliteracyproject.org/first-edition/kim
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.