Joseph Rudyard Kipling was a poet, short-story writer, created the well-loved story of Mowgli, and was presented with the Nobel Prize for Literature. Joseph was born in Bombay during 1865. His parents met and married in England but soon after, Joseph’s father, (John) was offered a position in India as a Professor. At only five years old, Joseph and his three-year-old sister Alice were sent to live at a foster home in the United Kingdom. This was considered customary during this time, much to Joseph’s dismay.
During the next six years Joseph experienced more cruelty than any creative mind could have imagined. He refers to this home as “the House of Desolation”. The young siblings’ only relief from the harsh environment was spending 1 month of the year with Aunt Georgiana in Fulham, London during Christmas. Joseph described it as a “paradise which I verily believe saved me”.
Finally, in 1877, Joseph’s mother (Alice) returned from India and rescued her children from the dreadful horror that they were suffering daily. Alice hadn’t been aware of the dire circumstances her children were suffering. Joseph was 12 now and had a great appreciation for his mother’s jovial energy and caring spirit. Alice spent the next summer and fall with her children in Loughton, London. They relaxed on the farm and soaked in the calming connection to nature that the children so desperately longed for.
“Often and often afterwards, the beloved Aunt would ask me why I had never told any one how I was being treated. Children tell little more than animals, for what comes to them they accept as eternally established. Also, badly-treated children have a clear notion of what they are likely to get if they betray the secrets of a prison-house before they are clear of it.”
The following year Joseph was admitted to a preparatory school at United Services College. The daily training was intended to prime the boys for the army. Towards the end of his schooling, his academics weren’t all his parents (nor Joseph) had hoped they would be. Joseph wouldn’t be able to get into Oxford on a scholarship as planned. Without the money available to support the hefty expense, Joseph’s father sought out a job for him in Lahore, where he was currently carrying out the role of Principal of the Mayo College of Art. Joseph would be tasked with assistant editor of the local newspaper.
Joseph sailed away at 16, arriving in Bombay for his new assignment. He found himself “moving among sights and smells” that brought back memories he’d long forgotten. He found himself connecting with Bombay…the home he’d lost touch with.
During 1883-1889, Joseph worked for local newspapers in British India and his longing to write just wouldn’t quit. In 1886, Joseph published his first collection of verse and was then given additional liberty at work by contributing short stories. An old colleague of Joseph’s recalled, “In the hot weather when he (Joseph) wore only white trousers and a thin vest, he is said to have resembled a Dalmatian dog more than a human being, for he was spotted all over with ink in every direction.”
In 1887, he moved on to a sister newspaper (need I say, the larger of the two) in the United Provinces. He worked as assistant editor and continued his pattern of ferociously writing. He published six collections of short stories with a forceful flood of ink spots to prove it. In 1889 a mysterious dispute unraveled, and he was let go. Thankfully the newspaper provided him with six months’ salary and off Joseph went, with ample money to spend. London was his final destination, but not before a little (or big) detour. Joseph explored Rangoon, Singapoore, Hong Kong and Japan. His final stop before reaching London was New York, where he arrived unannounced at Mark Twain’s home. Joseph later wrote that as he rang the doorbell, “It occurred to me for the first time that Mark Twain might possibly have other engagements other than the entertainment of escaped lunatics from India, be they ever so full of admiration”.
Wolcott Balestier (a publishing agent) who was also an American writer, collaborated on a novel with Joseph. Wolcott’s sister, Caroline (Carrier) made an introduction into Joseph’s life and a year later the pair married in London in January of 1892, (Joseph was 26 and Carrie was 29). In December the pair had their first child, Josephine. Inspirations took ahold of Joseph and the writings of The Jungle Books came to fruition. The family soon moved to Vermont, as their small cottage was becoming quite cramped. Thankfully they made the leap for a bigger home when they did, as another little girl rapidly arrived, leaving little space for the wedded pair to nourish their romantic longing. The family began an annual tradition of traveling to South Africa for their winter holiday and Joseph was warmly regarded by many prominent politicians.
In August of 1897 Joseph and Carrie celebrated their first son, John. On a trek to the United States in 1899, Joseph and his eldest daughter contracted pneumonia. Josephine died at the age of 7 and understandably, Joseph steered his focus onto stories for children, publishing Just So Stories for Little Children in 1902. In 1903, Joseph offered his support to Elizabeth Ford Holt who had an idea of establishing a summer camp for boys called Camp Mowglis, based on the Jungle Books that he had successfully written. He and his wife actively shared in the traditions of the camp that his loved stories inspired.
In 1907, Joseph was awarded the Nobel Prize for Literature. Following this life changing achievement came one of my favorite poems by Joseph, “If-“ of Rewards and Fairies.
During the First Word War, Joseph wrote pamphlets and poems advocating the UK war intentions of restoring Belgium. His emotions were high-strung, and anger soaked through his soul when discovering reports of the Rape of Belgium. Mass-murders and deportation ran rampant, and the cold-hearted acts ripped at his soul.
During the Battle of Loos, Joseph lost his son in 1915. John was only 18. Ironically, John’s application had been turned down by the Royal Navy twice due to poor eyesight. Due to connections between his father and Lord Roberts, (a former commander-in-chief of the British Army), John was accepted into the Irish Guards. Joseph wrote a poem after the loss of his son entitled, Epitaphs of War. “If any question why we died / Tell them, because our fathers lied.” There was speculation this was written due to the guilt Joseph experienced in orchestrating John’s commission.
Joseph wrote until the early 1930’s. In 1936, at the age of 70, Joseph suffered a hemorrhage in his small intestine and passed away after an unsuccessful surgery. Joseph experienced the heartbreak of two of his three children passing away before his own life ended. He loved the outdoors, was a successful artist and marveled at the Vermont leaves changing colors. The depths of his thoughts, soul, and beliefs seeped through every word written and whether agreed with or not, are indeed worthy of reading with an open eye.
T.S. Eliot affectionately said of Joseph, “An immense gift for using words, an amazing curiosity and power of observation with his mind and with all his senses, the mask of the entertainer, and beyond that a queer gift of second sight, of transmitting messages from elsewhere, a gift so disconcerting when we are made aware of it that thenceforth we are never sure when it is not present: all this makes Kipling a writer impossible wholly to understand and quite impossible to belittle.”
References:
Rudyard Kipling | Biography, Books, Poems, & Facts | Britannica
Header quote credit: Rewards and Faires, Poem: If