Violet Books

The first ten (of twenty) Bomba the Jungle Boy adventures form an epic unto themselves of his South American adventures & his climactic discovery of his origins. The second set of ten takes Bomba on a sundry adventures to the jungles all around the world -- they were only issued by Cupples & Leon. But that first ten were reissued as a set in 1953 by Grosset & Dunlap -- & for the first time each book had its own unique dustwrapper. Earlier editions of the Bombas shared the same dustwrapper art with only the titles changing, hence G&D provided the finer array of portraits of Bomba in action. The 1953 set also had special endpapers showing Bomba battling a leopard; you can view this by clicking the phrase: ENDPAPER ART. Each book also had a small potrait of Bomba embossed on the front board, which you can see at the head of this page. There is a separate page for CUPPLES & LEON DUSTWRAPPER TYPES.

The Grosset's are the only set with unique dustwrappers. Bomba was afterward to be issued in pictorial covers without dustwrappers. It is extremely rare to see the entire set of the Bomba unique dustwrappers offered for sale as a group -- I spent more than three years of concerted effort trying to complete this set for Violet Books' stock & more than once was frustrated enough that I considered giving up & selling individually the ones I had located. Then in November I found the very last one, which was volume 9, which had eluded me for so long -- & what a treat that it was one of the best jackets into the bargain showing Bomba wrastling with a squiddy snouter!