Rudyard Kipling (1856-1936) - Life's Handicap: Being Stories of Mine Own People - 1e druk - 1891

Rudyard Kipling (1865-1936)
Very special edition: First English edition from 1891 of Rudyard Kipling’s Life’s Handicap: Being Stories of Mine Own People.
Edition: Macmillan & Co. - London and New York/1891.
The copy is the first English edition, in the original dark blue cloth binding, 351 numbered pages, followed by L’Envoi, and a publisher’s catalog bound in at the back, dated May 1891 (pp. 1–55 + [56]).
An interesting bibliographical feature: the catalog is the Macmillan catalog of May 1891, numbered pages 1–55, followed by an unnumbered blank page. The leaf with pages 49–50 is missing. The catalog also contains the printer/referent notation "VIII/50/5/91." - see the photos. Also note the correct signature (photo).
On the inside front cover this ex libris reads: "From the shelves of John and Maggie Phillips”, the British couple who for decades conducted military-historical research in which the fate of John Kipling (1897-1915), Rudyard’s son, was discussed.
David Alan Richards, author of Rudyard Kipling: A Bibliography (2010), has examined the copy and confirms it as a first English edition and has noted that he has not previously encountered this specific catalog variant.
The book is bound in a blue linen cloth binding (19.5x14 cm) with a gilded top edge featuring floral motifs; author, title, and publisher on the spine in gold, including a later protective slipcase also with author and title in gold on the spine.
Condition: very good, very slight signs of use, a few faint foxing spots on the bound-in catalog (see the photos).