KIPLING, Rudyard. If. Decorative broadside poem. [Joliet, Illinois: P.F. Volland Co., c.1910].

Decorative colour-printed broadside featuring Rudyard Kipling’s celebrated poem If, first published in Rewards and Fairies in 1910. The text is enclosed within an elaborate Art Nouveau border of Celtic-inspired interlacing, scrollwork, and geometric ornament printed in shades of blue, gold, green, orange and cream. Copyright notice at foot reads: “From Rewards and Fairies Copyright 1910 Rudyard Kipling. Doubleday, Page & Company, Publishers”, with distribution by the P.F. Volland Company of Joliet, Illinois. Framed and glazed.

A striking example of early twentieth-century decorative print design, marrying one of the most enduring poems in the English language with the highly fashionable Arts and Crafts and Art Nouveau aesthetic of the period. Kipling’s If remains among the most widely quoted poems of the twentieth century, celebrated for its themes of resilience, self-discipline, perseverance and moral character. Surviving decorative broadsides of this quality are increasingly difficult to locate, particularly when retaining their original colouring and presented in an attractive frame.

An excellent interior design piece with strong crossover appeal for collectors of literary ephemera, Arts and Crafts decoration, Edwardian prints, and Kipling material.

First published in Rewards and Fairies (London, 1910), If. was inspired in part by the qualities admired by Kipling in Leander Starr Jameson and quickly became one of the most anthologised poems in the English language. Decorative illuminated editions from the Edwardian period are now appreciated both as literary artefacts and as examples of early twentieth-century design aesthetics.x

The poem, first published in Rewards and Fairies (1910) It is written in the form of paternal advice to the poet's son, John.
“If you can keep your head when all about you
Are losing theirs and blaming it on you;
If you can trust yourself when all men doubt you,
But make allowance for their doubting too:
If you can wait and not be tired by waiting,
Or being lied about, don't deal in lies,
Or being hated don't give way to hating,
And yet don't look too good, nor talk too wise.”

[L1 Prints]