1907 - Jock of the Bushveld

First published in 1907 in London and New York by Longmans, Green, and Company

The following was borrowed from: https://antiquarianauctions.com/lots/jock-of-the-bushveld-this-is-the-first-copy-of-jock-belongs-to-the-likkle-people

The first few printings/impressions of the first edition have on pages 65, 337 and 457 drawings of a dung beetle pushing his load with his front legs rather than his back legs; and Snowball the horse being dragged out of the river on page 316. The dung beetle drawing on page 65, and the drawing of Snowball in the river were changed in later impressions.

5000 copies of the first impression were printed at a total cost to Longmans of £416. 7s. 11d.

The dedication page reads: It was the youngest of the High Authorities who gravely informed the Inquiring Stranger that “Jock belongs to the Likkle People!” That being so, it is clearly the duty, no less less than the privilege, of the mere Narrator to dedicate the Story of Jock to those Keenest and Kindest critics, Best of Friends, and Most Delightful of Comrades The Likkle People.

Fitzpatrick's adventures during this time of his life, when he was pioneering in the Bushveld, are vividly described in this book.

In the early 1900s he used to recount the adventures of his dog, Jock (a Staffordshire Bull terrier cross), in the form of bedtime stories to his four children, Nugent, Alan, Oliver, and Cecily, to whom the book was dedicated - the likkle people.

Rudyard Kipling, an intimate friend, used to take part in these story-telling evenings and he it was who persuaded Fitzpatrick to put the stories together in book form. Having done this, Fitzpatrick searched for a suitable artist to illustrate the book and eventually came across Edmund Caldwell in London and brought him to South Africa to visit the Bushveld and make the drawings on the spot.

The book, which appeared in 1907 for the first time, was an immediate and overwhelming success, being reprinted four times in that year.

The frontispiece, portraying Jock, and the title-page of the first impression of the British first edition

The title-page of the first impression of the American first edition (New York listed before London)

The New York first edition has the same frontispiece as found in the London first edition

The following was borrowed from https://antiquarianauctions.com/lots/jock-of-the-bushveld-first-american-edition

Extracted from the University of Reading Archival records for the Longmans Group: Fitzpatrick’s Jock of the Bushveld - a handwritten entry in the ledger dated Sept 11 1907: 521 copies cloth sold to NY; 520 copies folded sold to NY; 260 copies flat sold to NY. At the top of the page for this entry is the following annotation in red ink: Work to be illustrated by Mr E. Caldwell and the payment for the drawings to be borne by the author.