The Call of the Maneater
By Kenneth Anderson
 
First edition, first impression. Octavo. Original black cloth, spine lettered in silver. With the striking pictorial dust jacket, likely designed by William Randell, depicting two tigers in dense jungle foliage. Illustrated with photographs, including portraits of the author and his family with various animals and scenes of the Indian jungle.

A very good copy of Anderson's fourth book, recounting his encounters with the wildlife of South India. Blending natural history with thrilling narratives of hunts for tigers, leopards, and other predators, Anderson continues the tradition of Jim Corbett, though his writing is marked by its own dry humour and intimacy with the forest. Particularly evocative are his depictions of the Indian landscape, and his sympathetic accounts of snakes, elephants, and other creatures beyond the tiger.

The present copy is bright and sharp, the cloth binding clean and square, the contents fresh with just a touch of toning to the text block and dustiness to top edge. The dust jacket is complete and unfaded, showing only light wear at extremities and a couple of closed tears, far better preserved than is typically encountered.