Barrack Room Ballads by Rudyard Kipling

Barrack-Room Ballads is a book of poetry by Rudyard Kipling. The first edition was published in 1892, two years before the publication of his iconic The Jungle Book.

Rudyard Kipling was popular in his time, and his book of war poetry, Barrack-Room Ballads, helped solidify his reputation as a poet.

This version is the Little Leather Library Corporation’s version, published in 1921 or 1922. As you can see it is very little, and it is also leather. Sometimes you will see these in red.

Little Leather Library Corporation made these pocket-sized books, and during the company’s heyday they sold about 25 million books in six years time. The sales channels for these small books were mainly department stores, drug stores, or mail-order catalogues. They were bought individually or in a boxed set, and are collectible.

The subject matter of much of these poems deals with war and the life of soldiers.

You can read all of the Barrack-Room Ballads via Project Gutenberg.

I find this imperfection charming and perfect, a truth and testament to the labor involved in printing and binding books in those days.