THE JUNGLE BOOK AND THE SECOND JUNGLE BOOK

London, 1894, 1895: MacMillan, 1894. 1st Edition. Soft cover. J. Lockwood Kipling with W. H. Drake & P. Fren. J. Lockwood Kipling with W. H. Drake & P. Fren. 1st Edition. Soft cover. From TBCL's Children's Bookcase. Kipling, Rudyard THE JUNGLE BOOK AND THE SECOND JUNGLE BOOK. London: Macmillan, 1894, 1895. 8vo. 212, 238p. Classic First Editions, First Issue. Wonderfully illustrated in black & white throughout by Kipling's father, J. Lockwood Kipling with W. H. Drake & P. Frenzeny. The Jungle Book bound in full blue calf, four raised bands, gilt titles to spine, blue endpapers, the front cover bound in. A lovely near fine or better copy, all edges gilt WITH The Second Jungle Book bound in gilt ruled & titled half red calf & linen, five raised bands, covers bound in at the rear. A fine excellent example. "This most desirable pair will always fill an honorable place in any library of children's books" (Quayle 87). Richards A76 & A85; Stewart 123 & 132. Livingston 104, 116. A lovely mixed set of one of the cornerstone titles in children's literature & Kipling highlight & along with Just So Stories, his most beloved work. Custom red & blue leather slipcase. First published in magazine format in 1893-4. British Nobel laureate Rudyard Kipling was born in India lived there & in England & wrote these stories when he lived in Vermont. The tales are fables, using animals in an anthropomorphic manner to give moral lessons. The verses of The Law of the Jungle, for example, lay down rules for the safety of individuals, families & communities. Kipling put in them nearly everything he knew or "heard or dreamed about the Indian jungle." Other readers have interpreted the work as allegories of the politics & society of the time. The best-known of them are the three stories revolving around the adventures of an abandoned "man cub" Mowgli who is raised by wolves in the Indian Jungle with the help of Baloo the bear & Bagheera the black panther, & then has to fight the tiger Shere Khan. The most famous of the other stories are probably "Rikki-Tikki-Tavi", the story of a heroic mongoose, & "Toomai of the Elephants", the tale of a young elephant-handler. "The White Seal", in which the main character seeks a haven for his people where they would be safe from hunters, has been considered a metaphor for Zionism, then in its beginning. As with much of Kipling's work, each of the stories is preceded by a piece of verse, & succeeded by another. $2475.