Forecast: Harry Ricketts's biography came out just two years ago (and is now out in paperback), but some review coverage should give an initial push to Gilmour.

THE LONG RECESSIONAL: THE IMPERIAL LIFE OF RUDYARD KIPLING By David Gilmour Farrar, Straus and Giroux, $26, 351 pages, illus. REVIEWED BY SUDIP BOSE Whatever one thinks of Rudyard Kipling’s politics ...

Allegory, verse, folktales and a circus tale for children are featured in the current silent auction of old and rare books sponsored by the Friends of the A.K. Smiley Public Library. The books up for ...