"FOR THE STRENGTH OF THE PACK IS THE WOLF, AND THE STRENGTH OF THE WOLF IS THE PACK"

KIPLING, Rudyard. The Jungle Book. WITH: The Second Jungle Book. London and New York: Macmillan, 1894-95. Two volumes. Octavo, early 20th-century full blue morocco gilt, raised bands, silk endpapers, all edges gilt; original cloth covers and spines bound in at rear of each volume. Housed together in a cloth slipcase. $6250.

First editions of Kipling's classic Jungle Books, "replete with adventure and excitement," handsomely bound in full morocco-gilt by Bayntun, with original cloth covers and spines bound in. From the library of Eugene Field.

"Among the 15 stories in [these volumes] are some of Kipling's most memorable narratives" (Abraham, 36). "The child who has never run with Mowgli's wolf pack, or stood with Parnesius and Pertinax to defend the Northern Wall… has missed something that he will not get from any other writer" (Carpenter & Prichard, 297). Illustrated largely by W. H. Drake and Kipling's father, J. Lockwood Kipling, "this most desirable pair… will always fill an honorable place in any library of children's books" (Quayle 87). "Of the seven stories and seven poems comprising The Jungle Book, only the stories had previously appeared in periodicals (in 1893 and 1894), and when collected here, each story had an additional verse heading appended." First edition of Jungle Book containing the imprint "R. & R. Clark" that appears in the "first copies… [of] the first print run… in later printings it is 'R. & R. Clark Ltd." (Richards A76); with numerous in-text and 20 full-page illustrations including frontispiece. First English edition of Second Jungle Book issued only three days after the American edition, containing numerous in-text illustrations, decorative initials and head- and tailpieces: with first edition imprint "R. & R. Clark, Limited" (238), rear advertisement leaf. Livingston 104, 116. From the library of American author Eugene Field, with a manuscript note to that effect written by his son Eugene Field II on the rear flyleaf of Volume I, signed by him and notarized, with the public notary's signature and blindstamp.

Faint foxing to endpapers, first and last few leaves. Expert repair to joints and spine ends. A near-fine set, beautifully bound, with a nice literary provenance.