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"Captains Courageous": A Story of the Grand Banks

"Captains Courageous": A Story of the Grand Banks

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"Captains Courageous": A Story of the Grand Banks

by KIPLING, Rudyard

  • Used
  • Hardcover
  • first
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About This Item

New York: The Century Co, 1897. Hardcover. Small 8vo. Green cloth with gilt lettering and black, gilt and orange pictorial and decorative stamping. viii, 323pp. Frontispiece, 20 full-page called-for plates. Very good. Internally tight and near fine, though binding is a bit edgeworn and the cloth "flecked," with a few stray small spots on spine and rear board; small homely gouge at lower left of front board. A tight and decent first edition of this great seafaring adventure in a binding that's well-loved but still fairly attractive, with front board gilt bright. The illustrations by Walton Taber (1857-1933) are pristine.

Synopsis

Harvey Cheyne is the over-indulged son of a millionaire. When he falls overboard from an ocean liner her is rescued by a Portuguese fisherman and, initially against his will, joins the crew of the We're Here for a summer. Through the medium of an exciting adventure story, Captains Courageous (1897) deals with a boy who, like Mowgli in The Jungle Book, is thrown into an entirely alien environment.

Reviews

On Oct 12 2011, Feeney said:
Rudyard Kipling spent four years (1892 - 1896) at home in Vermont with his American wife Carrie and their young family. There, in 1896, he wrote CAPTAINS COURAGEOUS: A STORY OF THE GRAND BANKS. It was first serialized then appeared in book form, with many revisions from the manuscript -- which is still preserved. Much background Kipling derived from a local doctor with hands on fishing experience three decades earlier. Together the two friends visited harbors of Boston and Gloucester to speak with fishermen, boat owners and sea captains. ***This is mainly the story of a few months (late May-late August) aboard a fishing boat in the life of Harvey Cheyne, age 15. When we first see him, Harvey is quick-witted, neglected by his immensely wealthy, generally absent railroad tycoon father, and beyond the control of his adoring, neurotic, underappreciated mother. Mother and son are steaming across the Grand Banks toward schooling for the latter in Europe. Harvey intrudes himself into the evening relaxation of male passengers and makes a pompous pest of himself. Given a never before tried cigar to replace his cigarette, he becomes sick, staggers out on deck, falls into the sea and is given up by his mother for drowned. *** Harvey's fall is, however, seen by Manuel, a Portuguese cod fisherman alone in a small dory. Harvey comes to consciousness on top of a pile of Manuel's fish, is delivered to the 70-ton fishing schooner We're Here owned by Captain Disko Troop. As soon as he is able, Harvey arrogantly demands that Troop sail him at once to New York where Harvey's father will lavishly recompense the Captain and crew of the We're Here. As Harvey continues to insist, Captain Troop, judging the boy's tale of wealth either a lie or a product of involuntary delirium, gets Harvey's attention by bloodying his nose. Instantly, Harvey is transformed. Out with the old, in with the new. *** Inspired by the Captain's 16 year old son Daniel Troop, Harvey pitches in and day and night after day and night doing his rishing share of work till reunited with his parents in Gloucester in late August. Sensing Harvey's keen intellect, Captain Troop teaches him to use the sextant and to record ship's finances. In later years, as soon as Harvey graduates from college, he takes over management of the fleet of speedy tea merchantmen that his father had just acquired at novel's beginning. And Dan, Harvey's greatest chum, rises to become skipper of one of the finest clippers in that fleet. *** Sounds simple, right? Just for kids? Wrong. *** Kipling wrote an anything but shallow novel of America's immigrant past (the thousand multi-national fishing boats on the Grand Banks) and Gilded Age cutthroat capitalist future then emerging. The two principal captains of CAPTAINS COURAGEOUS are sea captain Disko Troop and land captain, railroad tycoon, Harvey Cheyne, Senior. The episode in which Mr and Mrs Cheyne are whisked at record-breaking speed from California to Boston in a private car on a private train across lands until recently only sparsely inhabited by Indians is one of the most celebrated passages in railroad fictional literature. *** Moreover, symbolism abounds in this tale of a young man's quasi-religious conversion. Wretched young Harvey will either be drowned by the sea or saved by it. If his falling off the steamer and rescue by a fisherman is his baptism by sea water, then his confirmation comes soon after, via the bloody nose administered by Captain Troop -- reminiscent of a bishop's symbolic tap on the cheek when the sacrament is administered. *** CAPTAINS COURAGEOUS is a stronger, deeper book than a quick reading might make you think. I therefore recommend that you read or consult a scholarly edition with explanatory notes. -OOO-

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Details

Bookseller
Main Street Fine Books & Manuscripts, ABAA US (US)
Bookseller's Inventory #
45302
Title
"Captains Courageous": A Story of the Grand Banks
Author
KIPLING, Rudyard
Format/Binding
Hardcover
Book Condition
Used
Quantity Available
1
Publisher
The Century Co
Place of Publication
New York
Date Published
1897
Bookseller catalogs
Books; British Literature;

Terms of Sale

Main Street Fine Books & Manuscripts, ABAA

Main Street Fine Books & Manuscripts accepts most major credit cards and PayPal. Checks are welcome. Institutions will be accommodated as their procedures require. Every effort has been made to describe each book and any defects accurately. If an item proves unsatisfactory for any reason, it may be returned within seven days. We would appreciate a courtesy call if an item is being returned. Member ABAA, ILAB, MWABA, The Manuscript Society.

About the Seller

Main Street Fine Books & Manuscripts, ABAA

Seller rating:
This seller has earned a 4 of 5 Stars rating from Biblio customers.
Biblio member since 2005
Galena, Illinois

About Main Street Fine Books & Manuscripts, ABAA

Main Street Fine Books & Manuscripts has been serving book lovers, collectors and institutions since 1991. Our inventory of quality out-of-print books spans 50 subjects, while the extensive autograph holdings have a decidedly historical bent, reflecting personages from every field of human endeavor.

Glossary

Some terminology that may be used in this description includes:

Spine
The outer portion of a book which covers the actual binding. The spine usually faces outward when a book is placed on a shelf....
Cloth
"Cloth-bound" generally refers to a hardcover book with cloth covering the outside of the book covers. The cloth is stretched...
First Edition
In book collecting, the first edition is the earliest published form of a book. A book may have more than one first edition in...
Fine
A book in fine condition exhibits no flaws. A fine condition book closely approaches As New condition, but may lack the...
Gilt
The decorative application of gold or gold coloring to a portion of a book on the spine, edges of the text block, or an inlay in...
Tight
Used to mean that the binding of a book has not been overly loosened by frequent use.

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