Books

First edition, first impression, second state binding, of Kipling's famous collection of twelve stories and twelve poems, including "How the Camel Got His Hump" and "How the Leopard Got His Spots". The first impression exists in two issues of the binding. The first, on which the white blocking failed to adhere, was superseded by this more stably blocked one, on which the white decoration remained intact. Unusually for jacket designs of this period, the jacket of Just So Stories reproduces an image different from that of the blocking on the boards. Quarto. Original red cloth, lettering and pictorial decoration on spine and boards in black and white. With the pictorial dust jacket. Housed in a red quarter morocco solander box by the Chelsea Bindery. 22 plates by the author, illustrated drop-cap initials, line drawings in the text. Spine ends slightly bruised, front inner hinge a little cracked at foot and rear inner hinge cracked, but both firm, endpapers and first and last few leaves lightly foxed, the occasional faint mark to contents but overall internally clean and fresh; in the toned and chipped jacket, with Japanese tissue repairs to verso, one earlier tape repair to rear joint verso, the spine darkened, and a few small perforations at joints. Overall a very good copy in the rare dust jacket. Grolier Children's 100, 57.

Just So Stories for Little Children is a collection of origin stories by the British author Rudyard Kipling. Considered a classic of children's literature, the book is amongst Kipling's best known works.