"Men in pajamas sitting abaft the funnel and swapping lies of the purple seas."

Early short stories by the master story teller Kipling. Collection of previously uncollected short works by Rudyard Kipling including stories, poems and letters. This is a collection of stories (and one poem) in the reprinting of which, Kipling’s hand was forced. He had not intended that these particular items should be republished after their original appearance in the Civil and Military Gazette, the Pioneer and Pioneer Mail, the Week’s News, and the C&MG 'Turnovers' between 1888 and 1890.

This unauthorised volume has the following Preface:

The measure of a man's popularity is not always—or indeed seldom—the measure of his intrinsic worth. So, when the earlier work of any writer is gathered together in more enduring form, catering to the enthusiasm of his readers in his maturer years, there is always a suspicion that the venture is purely a commercial one, without literary justification.