THE SEVEN SEAS by Kipling, Rudyard - 1896

London: Methuen and Co., 1896. Pp. xv, 230, 39 - publisher's catalogue dated October 1896. Title-page with vignette. Maroon buckram, gilt spine lettering, top edge gilt, others untrimmed. From the library of Julius H. Griffith (1865-1936), friend of Kipling, and fellow student (#419) at United Services College (U.S.C). He is the father of Canadian artist Julius Griffith, with his ink signature dated 5th Nov'r, /96 to front free endpaper. Mounted to front blank is a 3-page handwritten, warm, familiar letter from Kipling to "Dear Griffiths" [sic] on "Rock House, Maidencombe, St. Marychurch" letterhead. Kipling talks of mutual friends and shows his indignation over what happened with Cormell Price and the school: "I've just had a note from Westward Ho! inviting me to contribute to the U.S. Chronicle! Did you ever hear such d__d cheek. Of course I can't write back and crush the poor prefect who wrote it, but I should write to make it perfectly clear that none of Price's men have the least connection with or interest in the place nowadays. Don't you feel like that yourself? (The little beast wrote to me as "an old boy." [no closed bracket] However if I launch into old Coll. Days I shall not soon stop." and signed "Very yours sincerely, Rudyard Kipling". In Kipling's letter of Dec. 18, 1896 to Cormell Price (ALs now housed in the Library of Congress), he mentions receiving a letter from "Griffiths II", and repeats some of the content from our letter. Also included is a black & white glossy photograph with one vertical crease, on verso written in pencil (most probably by Griffith): "Russian Battleship "Cesarevitch," as I saw her at Kiaochow after being given up to the Germans. Hull and guns all undamaged, funnels & upperworks knocked about. Conning tower knocked to bits. A clear case of funk.", dated 30/9/04. Two news clippings [from 1898], one of a few stanzas of a new poem by Rudyard Kipling called "The Destroyers", and the other the poem "A Voice From the West" by Alfred Austin. Covers slightly soiled and scuffed, spinestrip sunned with uneven fading to boards, otherwise a very good, square copy. (Stewart 140; Livingston 131). INCLUDES AUTOGRAPH LETTER SIGNED. First English Edition. Hard Cover. Very Good. Octavo.