THE JUNGLE BOOK

1894. Decorated by J. Lockwood Kipling, C.I.E. New York: The Century Co., 1894. Original olive-green cloth decorated in gilt.

First American Edition, published on the same day (May 22nd) as the English edition. Many of the illustrations are by John Lockwood Kipling, Rudyard's father. This book and THE SECOND JUNGLE BOOK, along with KIM and JUST SO STORIES, constitute Kipling's best-loved work: For there is a unique magic in the JUNGLE BOOKs from the moment the infant Mowgli enters the wolf's lair, and the moonlight is blacked out at the mouth of the cave by the great head of the tiger Shere Khan, and his roar fills it with thunder. There is magic too in the jungle, so glowingly portrayed, with its danger-haunted thickets, and the monkeys threading its frail liana ways, the enchanted land of which Mowgli is to become the master; and in the animals who are his friends and mentors -- Bagheera, the sleek and terrible panther; Baloo, the wise old bear; Hathi, the elephant; Kaa, the gigantic python who makes a nest for Mowgli in his coils; Akela, the leader of the wolf-pack; and the bandarlog, chattering outcasts of the tree tops, whose only wish is to be noticed, and who immediately abandon every task they have begun. [Birkenhead] This volume is in near-fine condition (spine cloth a little darkened, a trace of rubbing at the extremities); as with most copies we have encountered, in the binding process a leaf was glued down under the rear endpaper. Richards A77; Stewart 124.