The Beginning of the Armadilloes (A Just So Story)

The Beginning of the Armadilloes (A Just So Story) Author: Rudyard Kipling Illustrator: Charles Keeping Year: 1982 (First edition thus) ISBN: 0-333-34138-4 / 9780333341384 Binding: Hardcover, laminated pictorial boards Pages: 31 Condition: As New. This is a pristine 1982 Macmillan Children’s Books first edition thus of Rudyard Kipling’s classic Just So Story The Beginning of the Armadilloes, illustrated in full colour by Charles Keeping. Issued in laminated pictorial boards with red endpapers . The book appears unread and is in exceptional condition. The volume presents the story in an attractive, durable format designed for reading aloud. The front cover features Keeping’s characteristic detailed and atmospheric rendering of two armadillos in a green, grassy landscape, while the rear panel lists companion titles in the series with their illustrators (Michael Foreman, William Stobbs, Alan Baker). Interior colour plates and decorative elements by Keeping accompany Kipling’s text throughout. Rudyard Kipling (1865–1936) Rudyard Kipling was one of the most popular and influential writers of the late Victorian and Edwardian eras. Born in Bombay (now Mumbai) to British parents, he spent his early childhood in India before being sent to England for schooling. He returned to India as a young journalist and began publishing the short stories and verse that quickly made his name. Kipling’s work is marked by vivid storytelling, mastery of dialect and rhythm, and a deep interest in the landscapes, animals, and peoples of the British Empire and beyond. He received the Nobel Prize in Literature in 1907, becoming the first English-language writer to do so. Just So Stories, first published in 1902, originated as bedtime tales Kipling told his daughter Josephine. Written in a playful, rhythmic, and highly oral style full of invented words and repeated refrains (“O Best Beloved”), the collection explains how animals acquired their distinctive features. “The Beginning of the Armadilloes” recounts how Stickly-Prickly Hedgehog and Slow-and-Solid Tortoise, living on the banks of the turbid Amazon, outwit Painted Jaguar by learning to swim and curl, ultimately transforming into the first armadillos. The story is followed by the poem “I’ve never sailed the Amazon.” Kipling’s own black-and-white drawings illustrated the original edition; later illustrators such as Keeping have reinterpreted the tales for new generations. Charles Keeping (1924–1988) Charles Keeping was a major British illustrator of children’s books and a leading figure in post-war British graphic art. After the war he worked extensively in commercial art before turning to book illustration. Keeping developed a powerful, expressive style characterised by dense cross-hatching, bold line work, dramatic use of colour, and an ability to convey both atmosphere and character with remarkable intensity. His illustrations often explore working-class London life, animals, and historical or legendary subjects with a distinctive blend of realism and emotional force. In this 1982 edition of The Beginning of the Armadilloes, Keeping’s colour plates bring the Amazon setting, the hedgehog, tortoise, jaguar, and the emerging armadillos vividly to life, matching the rhythmic energy of Kipling’s text. The book forms part of a short series of individual Just So Stories issued by Macmillan in the early 1980s, each illustrated by a different contemporary artist. Laminated green pictorial boards, red endpapers, colour illustrations throughout. Printed in Italy by New Interlitho, Milan. Text copyright The National Trust; illustrations copyright © 1982 Macmillan Publishers Ltd. Ideal for collectors of Kipling, mid-to-late twentieth-century children’s book illustration, or Charles Keeping’s work. A fine reading copy or shelf piece that preserves one of Kipling’s most engaging animal origin tales in a distinctive modern pictorial binding.…