Kim

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.