"Favorite Just So Stories" by Rudyard Kipling, illustrated by H.B. Vestal, published by Grosset & Dunlap, New York. Stated printing of 1975. [First printing of this edition was issued in 1957].

Illustrated hard boards, large: 8.1/4" x 11.1/4"; 69 pages, fully illustrated with color and monochrome illustrations. Very good condition.

The stories that are included are:

How the Whale Got His Tiny Throat
How the Camel Got His Hump
How the Leopard Got His Spots
How the Elephant Got His Trunk
The Beginning of the Armadillos
The Sing-Song of Old Man Kangaroo
How the Rhinoceros Got His Wrinkly Skin

Rudyard Kipling (1865-1936) was born in Bombay in December 1865. He returned to India from England shortly before his seventeenth birthday, to work as a journalist first on the Civil and Military Gazette in Lahore, then on the Pioneer at Allahabad. The poems and stories he wrote over the next seven years laid the foundation of his literary reputation, and soon after his return to London in 1889 he found himself world-famous. Throughout his life his works enjoyed great acclaim and popularity, but he came to seem increasingly controversial because of his political opinions, and it has been difficult to reach literary judgements unclouded by partisan feeling

Herman Beeson Vestal (1916-2007) was American artist and illustrator. He became interested in art during his military service. His sketches and watercolors were included in exhibitions of Coast Guard Combat Art, which received press attention.

Since 1947 he created illustrations for pulp magazine, advertising, Sience Fiction and Western books. His artwork was included in the 1954 annual art exhibition of Salmagundi Club, and his watercolors were singled out for exceptional praise by the editors of American Artist Magazine, which reproduced one of his paintings on their May 1954 cover. During the 1960s he illustrated several young adult books.

US: Priority (c.2-4 days) --------- $12.50
Canada: 1st Class (c.2-4 weeks) -- $28.50
World: 1st Class (c.2-5 weeks) --- $42.50