Only about 5,000 copies of the edition were printed with full-illustrations and plates by Scottish painter Archibald Standish Hartrick, a well-renowned lithographic artist.

Soldiers Tales was published in 1896 as an illustrated collection of a handful of Kipling’s previously published or collected stories and poems -something more of a collector’s piece even during the author’s heyday. Kipling’s second Jungle offering isn’t quite the cohesive piece as the first, featuring only a handful of Mowgli-centered stories, but this edition as art or artifact is second to none. Published in 1895 only a few days prior to the British first edition, this rare incarnation features another understated terra cotta cloth cover, ornate amber-colored lettering for the title and author, and a hardcover binding as opposed to a cloth binding just one year prior with The Jungle Book. The Second Jungle Book (First American Edition)Īs with its predecessor, the first American edition of The Second Jungle Book is another beautiful volume complete with cover design and illustrations by Kipling’s father, John Lockwood Kipling, an English art teacher, illustrator, and museum curator in India and London. This edition’s simple, stark cover design is said to have pleased Kipling more than the British first edition for putting greater emphasis on the stories within the collection rather than the packaging itself. Perhaps Kipling’s most famous work, The Jungle Book contains a number of interconnected children's fables centering on the adventures of Mowgli, an abandoned child raised by animals in the Indian jungle. Published in 1894 by the Century Company in New York City, this first American edition of The Jungle Book is typified by its cloth binding and elegantly simple olive-green cover, complete with the silhouette of a small elephant. Whether you’re looking for first editions, rare editions, illustrated volumes, or something else entirely, below are five unique editions of Rudyard Kipling books that are sure to entice the most die-hard fan and excite even the most seasoned rare book collector. Kipling’s vast and expansive catalog of work -not to mention various editions of each major novel or collection -can make it difficult for the Kipling completist to discern which editions to search out, track down, or acquire. Kipling was a master storyteller whose books transcended genre and audience, and his impact on the modern short story, children’s books, poetry, and long-form narratives like the novel still resonates with writers today.Ī Nobel Prize in Literature winner in 1907, Kipling’s most famous works include The Jungle Book (1894), The Second Jungle Book (1895), and The Light That Failed (1891), as well as a number of seminal shorter works, most notably the poems Gunga Din (1890) and The White Man’s Burden (1899). With dozens of major works to his name, Rudyard Kipling was one of the most prolific writers of his time and a stalwart in the British literary landscape.

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