"AN HONORABLE PLACE IN ANY LIBRARY OF CHILDREN'S BOOKS"

KIPLING, Rudyard. The Jungle Book. WITH: The Second Jungle Book. London and New York: Macmillan, 1894-95. Two volumes. Octavo, original pictorial blue cloth gilt, all edges gilt. Housed in custom chemises and half morocco slipcase. $7000.

First editions of Kipling's classic Jungle Books, "replete with adventure and excitement."

"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). Livingston 104, 116. Jungle Book with bookplate of noted book collector Lucius Wilmerding, financier, philanthropist and director of the New York Public Library.

Jungle Book exceptionally fine and fresh with cloth pristine and gilt bright. Second Jungle Book near-fine with scattered light foxing, light toning to spine. An excellent pair of volumes.