Rudyard Kipling, Teem, A Treasure Hunter
Kipling, Rudyard. “Teem”—A Treasure-Hunter. First American Edition. 1938. Book is in very good condition; dust jacket is in good plus condition—jacket shows fraying to the spine and repaired tears. The jacket is now in Mylar and shows better than it appears in the product photo.
There is a suggestion of the eternal in this lovely story of a pocket-sized terrier out of his element. How fitting it was Kipling’s last major work prior to his death. Written anthropomorphically in the first person, Teem, from a proud line of truffle hunters, relates how he was removed from the epicures of France to the English countryside where no one understands his talent. His new master mistakes Teem’s efforts to bring him truffles as games of fetch. A frustrated Teem nobly carries on in a country where no one can appreciate the skill that is very much his art, his raison d’être.
“My devotion He accepted and repaid from the first. My Art he could by no means comprehend. For, naturally, I followed my Art as every Artist must, even when it is misunderstood. If not, he comes to preoccupy himself mournfully with his proper fleas.”
--Teem