Kipling had a special fondness for the frontier town of Medicine Hat in the province of Alberta, Canada. The local postmaster there, Francis Fatt, wrote to Kipling about the proposal to change the town's name to something less colourful, and Kipling's response deprecating the idea appeared in the Medicine Hat News of December 22, 1910. In December of 1922 both letters were printed as a small pamphlet and distributed as a New Year's favor and greeting for 1923 by George Parker Winship, then the Assistant Librarian of Harvard College in Cambridge, Mass. Winship called his private press The Sign of the George. The pamphlet was set by hand at the Winships' Shandygraft Farm at Dover on the Charles River in Massachusetts. No statement was ever made of the number of copies printed. Two variants exist : The maple leaf cover and the Indian design cover - both are very rare. The mischievous spirit of this unauthorized enterprise is clearly expressed in the opening sentence of Winship's initialled preface: "This little tract for the times is printed in order that certain gentlemen who are known to their intimate acquaintances as 'Kipling fans' may possess a 'first (separate) edition' which some of their rivals in the engrossing game of book collecting will not be able to buy.This copy is bright, clean unfaded and complete. There is a touch of rubbing to the leading edge of the back cover and a scuff and chip to the upper leading edge of the back cover. Internally the book is bright and without foxing. No inscriptions. No loose or damaged pages.
Publisher: The Sign of the George, 1922
Condition: Very Good ++ / Near Fine. Wrapper: No Jacket ( as Issued )
