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The Man-Eating Leopard of Rudraprayag - Cover
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In a previous article I mentioned that Merlin Unwin had reprinted Jim Corbett's book Man-Eaters of Kumaon. I see that they have now published Duff Hart-Davis' biography of Corbett, Hero of Kumaon which I haven't seen beyond their own webpage. It has a cover, taken from Man-Eaters of Kumaon which has been coloured in and I see there are other images from the earlier book too. This reminded me it's time to share more of Sheppard's illustrations in Corbett books.
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| The Man-Eating Leopard of Rudraprayearlier ag - Frontispiece |
So this time I'm looking at The Man-Eating leopard of Rudraprayag. It was first published in the Uk in 1948 by Oxford University Press. Here is what the Times Literary Supplement said of the newly illustrated version of 1954 which features Raymond Sheppard's artwork:
In the already famous Man-Eaters of Kumaon Colonel Corbet! told of his battles with many man-eating tigers. The present book gives an absorbing account of his prolonged and hard-won campaign against a single leopard, an animal which outdoes tigers in cunning and ferocity. Roaming over an area of 500 square miles, the Rudraprayag leopard brought terror to the inhabitants of Garhwal for eight years, and year after year all efforts to kill it failed. On and off, Jim Corbett stalked it during the last two years of its career, finally destroying it at the end of an uninterrupted ten week pursuit. This new edition, with drawings by Raymond Sheppard, should bring The Man-Eating Leopard of Rudraprayag to every boy's bookshelf. It is an intensely exciting story which gains in effect by the simple and unaffected manner of its telling.
On the 2 April 1951, MacDonald Hastings reviewed the earlier book on the BBC Light Programme and from Monday 30 July 1951 till Friday 10 August (at 11.40) the BBC Home Service had a 20 minute serial (of 9 parts) of the book, read by Arthur Bush with these titles for each part - some may look familiar, having been taken from the chapter headings:
- Terror in Garhwal
- The First Kill
- A Holy-Man Tries Magic
- The Hunters Hunted
- Cyanide Fails to Kill
- The Gin Trap
- A Ventriloquial Effort
- Leopard Fights Leopard
- The End of the Man-Eater
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The Man-Eating Leopard of Rudraprayag - Title page
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The Man-Eating Leopard of Rudraprayag - Contents
There are 8 more chapters
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The endpapers have a map of the region and the recorded kills by the famous leopard between 1918 and 1926, but I can't find who drew it. An earlier edition (without Sheppard's drawings) show an image of a leaping leopard in the top right corner above the map and the kills are highlighted in red!
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The Man-Eating Leopard of Rudraprayag - p.1
These are the red monkeys on the Lachman Jhula suspension bridge |
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| The Man-Eating Leopard of Rudraprayag -p.5 |
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The Man-Eating Leopard of Rudraprayag - p.8
These was used as a cover motif on a later printing
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| The Man-Eating Leopard of Rudraprayag - p.9 |
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The Man-Eating Leopard of Rudraprayag - p.13
The leopard left all the goats alone but dragged away the sleeping boy |
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The Man-Eating Leopard of Rudraprayag - p.26
A crowd were surprised when the cornered leopard sprang through them |
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The Man-Eating Leopard of Rudraprayag - p.27
Corbett and men gather thorn bush to use as a fence
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The Man-Eating Leopard of Rudraprayag - p.29
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The Man-Eating Leopard of Rudraprayag - p.30
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I hope this is a portrait of the bridge-keeper who thought Corbett was wasting his time
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| The Man-Eating Leopard of Rudraprayag - p.34 |
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The Man-Eating Leopard of Rudraprayag - p.35
Foolish pilgrims insist on sleeping outdoors |
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The Man-Eating Leopard of Rudraprayag - p.38
One of the few suspension bridges across the Alaknanda River
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| The Man-Eating Leopard of Rudraprayag - p.41 |
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The Man-Eating Leopard of Rudraprayag - p.42
A tethered goat as bait |
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The Man-Eating Leopard of Rudraprayag - p.47
The moment Corbett gets so close, but...
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The Man-Eating Leopard of Rudraprayag - p.49
Indian rooster
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The Man-Eating Leopard of Rudraprayag - p.50
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The Man-Eating Leopard of Rudraprayag - p.55
"...the bridge was only crossed by one living thing - a jackal" |
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The Man-Eating Leopard of Rudraprayag - p.56
The 'holy man' |
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The Man-Eating Leopard of Rudraprayag - p.59
The crowd pushes the effigy of a tiger (not a leopard!!)
into the river hoping the evil spirit will enter it and be gone! |
PART TWO coming soon
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