"The Jungle Book" by Rudyard Kipling, illustrated by Fritz Eichenberg, Illustrated Junior Library, published by Grosset & Dunlap, New York, 1950. First Edition for the illustrations.

Hard boards, decorated cloth with lettering on spine [a little shelf wear]; 5.1/2" x 8.1/2"; illustrated endpapers, 244 pages + 10 color plates including frontispiece, c.50 line illustrations, very good condition.

The story of Mowgli, the young boy raised by wolves in India: his escapades and adventures with his dear friends Bagheera the panther and Baloo the bear, his capture by the Monkey-People, his attempt at reintegration into human society, and his ultimate triumph over his avowed enemy the tiger Shere Khan. Included in the book is the story of the brave white seal, Kotick, and the tenacious young mongoose, Rikki-Tikki-Tavi who battled through the night to protect his human family from a pair of sly and viscous cobras.

Fritz Eichenberg (1901-1990) was a German-American illustrator and arts educator who worked primarily in wood engraving.

Eichenberg was born to a Jewish family in Cologne, Germany, where the destruction of World War I helped to shape his anti-war sentiments. He worked as a printer's apprentice, and studied at the Municipal School of Applied Arts in Cologne and the Academy of Graphic Arts in Leipzig, where he studied under Hugo Steiner-Prag. In 1923 he moved to Berlin to begin his career as an artist, producing illustrations for books and newspapers. In his newspaper and magazine work, Eichenberg was politically outspoken and sometimes both wrote and illustrated his own reporting.

In 1933, the rise of Adolf Hitler convinced Eichenberg, a public critic of the Nazis, to emigrate with his wife and children to the United States, where he settled in New York City for most of the remainder of his life. He taught art at the New School for Social Research and at Pratt Institute and was part of the WPA's Federal Arts Project and was a member of the Society of American Graphic Artists. In 1947, he was elected into the National Academy of Design as an Associate member, and became a full Academician in 1949. Eichenberg also served as the head of the art department at the University of Rhode Island and laid out the printmaking studios there.

In his prolific career as a book illustrator, Eichenberg worked with many forms of literature but specialized in material with elements of extreme spiritual and emotional conflict, fantasy, or social satire, illustrating such authors as include Dostoyevsky, Tolstoy, Charlotte and Emily Brontë, Poe, Swift, and Grimmelshausen. He also wrote and illustrated books of folklore and children's stories.

US: Priority (c 2-4 days) ------------- $12.50
Canada: 1st Class (c.2-6 weeks) ------- $27.50
World: 1st Class (c.2-8 weeks) -------- $35.50