Together 2 volumes, 8vo. Frontispiece and illustrations after J. Lockwood Kipling, W. H. Drake and P. Frenzeny. (Some spotting throughout both volumes.) Original blue cloth, gilt-decorated on front covers, gilt-lettered on spines, edges gilt (minor wear to spine ends, very light sunning to spines). Provenance: W.H. Smith & Son (embossed stamp); John Talbot Gernon (ownership bookplate in The Jungle Book).

FIRST EDITIONS. The Jungle Book and The Second Jungle Book comprise a series of short stories inspired in part by Indian fable texts such as the Panchatantra, which like Kipling's tales are animal fables intended to teach moral lessons. Over a century after the book's publication a copy was found at the National Trust's Wimpole Hall in Cambridgeshire, UK, with an inscription in Kipling's hand suggesting that he'd written the stories for his daughter Josephine, who died in 1899 at the age of six years old. In the years since The Jungle Book has been adapted into numerous media and remains a beloved children's classic. Grolier, One Hundred Books Famous in Children's Literature 52; Livingston 104 and 115; Martindell 54 and 56; Richards A76; A85. A VERY BRIGHT SET.