LITERATURE 24 “One Of Trollope’s Best But Least-Known Novels” 24TROLLOPE, Anthony. He Knew He Was Right. London, 1869. Thirty-two parts. Octavo, original drab stiff paper wrappers printed in red and black, custom clamshell box. $6000 First edition in the scarce 32 original parts in printed paper wrappers of Trollope’s widely praised novel of obsession and madness, with 64 wood-engraved illustrations (32 full-page). A beautiful unrestored copy complete with all advertisements. Trollope is said to have been inspired by Shakespeare’s Othello in He Knew He Was Right. “One of Trollope’s best but least-known novels… it achieves what Henry James, who admired the book, has called ‘an impressive completeness of misery” (Hennessey, 291). The novel’s focus on the obsessions of his protagonist produces “a narrative that is at once a ‘sane’ realistic novel and a ‘mad’ Shakespearean tragedy” (Oberhalman). Interiors generally clean and fine, only a bit of light wear to spines of first and last parts, occasional minor toning and edge-wear to other parts. A beautiful, near-fine copy, scarce and desirable in the original parts, complete with all ads. “If You Can Keep Your Head When All About You…” 25KIPLING, Rudyard. If. New York, 1910. Oblong 12mo (6-1/2 by 4-1/2 inches), publisher’s full green morocco gilt. $4000 First separate edition (preceding the 1914 first separate English edition) of Kipling’s verse celebration of Victorian stoicism, in publisher’s scarce deluxe morocco binding. Dr. Leander Starr Jameson visited Rudyard Kipling and his family in the fall of 1909. “After a shaky start as leader of failed military raid in 1895 Jameson had gone on to become one of the most respected South African prime ministers. Young John Kipling was very impressed by his father’s heroic friend. His son’s reaction and his own respect for Jameson were in his mind as Kipling penned the words to his famous poem, If” (Dalhousie University). First published in Rewards and Fairies (1910), the poem, in Kipling’s words, “escaped from the book, and for a while ran about the world.” As late as 1995 and then again in 2005, a national BBC Television poll found “If “ to be Britain’s favorite poem. Interior fine, minor wear to edges and back panel of deluxe morocco binding, gilt bright. A near-fine copy.
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