The Second Jungle Book.

KIPLING, Rudyard.

Item Number: 122438

New York: The Century Company, 1895.

First edition of Kipling’s Second Jungle Book. Octavo, original cloth, top edge gilt, illustrated. Signed twice by the author, once on the half-title page with the following note, “Never take an encore. R.K.” Additionally signed in full on the title page by Rudyard Kipling. In near fine condition. First editions are rare signed.

Kipling's Jungle Books center on the story of Mowgli, an orphaned 'man-cub' who is raised in the jungle of India by wolves where he comes to learn the Laws of the Jungle. A major theme throughout the books is abandonment followed by fostering, as in the life of Mowgli, echoing Kipling's own childhood. Another is law vs. freedom; the stories are not about animal behavior, but about human archetypes in animal form. The books remain popular to this day and have been adapted several times for film and other media, including the classic Walt Disney 1967 animation and its 2016 remake.