Who was Rudyard Kipling?
Poet and Storywriter.
Date and Place of Birth:
30th December 1865, Bombay, India.
Family Background:
Son of John Lockwood Kipling an artist and scholar
and Curator of the Lahore Museum in India. Nephew of the wife of
Sir Edward Burne-Jones and the Mother
of Stanley Baldwin, Prime Minister.
Education:
United Services College, Westward Ho! Devon.
Chronology/Biography of Rudyard Kipling:
1882: After being
sent to England to receive his education he returned to India and
took a job as a journalist on the "Civil and Military Gazette"
newspaper in Lahore.
1886: "Departmental
Ditties was published in his newspaper. He also began to write for
the Gazette's sister paper the "Pioneer" in Allahabad.
1889: He returned
to England hoping to repeat the literary success that he had achieved
already in India.
1890: His first
novel "Light that failed" was not well received.
1892: "Barrack
Room Ballads" did achieve success. Set out on a world trip
on his honeymoon with his new wife and then returned to her home
town of Brattleboro in Vermont with the intention of settling there.
1894: "The
Jungle Book", written in America, established his fame in England,
but still many people here found his poetry distasteful as it smacked
of jingoism.
1896: After quarreling
with Carrie's brother the Kiplings came to settle in England.
1897: Moved to the
Grange in Rottingdean in Sussex.
1899: Death of his
daughter Josephine on a visit to the United States.
1901: Publication
of the best selling novel "Kim".
1902: Bought house
called Bateman's at Burwash, Sussex, which was his home until his
death.
1906: Publication
of "Puck of Pook's Hill".
1907: Awarded the
Nobel Prize for Literature.
1914: The War Propaganda
Bureau arranged for Kipling to make a visit to Britain's army camps
to increase morale.
1915: The Kipling's,
who had tried to warn the nation to be prepared for the First World
War lost their son John fighting with the Irish Guards in the Battle
of Loos at the age of eighteen. He visited the Western Front himself
and wrote about his experiences in "France at War." He
was also commissioned to write a pamphlet on "The Royal Navy
called the Fringes of the Fleet".
1920's/30's: Much
of his later writings have been described as proto-modernist and
his popularity fell further out of favour with English readers in
general.
Written Works:
- 1886: "Departmental
Ditties".
- 1887: "Plain
Tales from the Hills". "Soldiers Three".
- 1889: "From
Sea to Sea".
- 1890: "The
Light That Failed".
- 1891: "Life's
Handicap".
- 1892: "Barrack
Room Ballads". "Naulakha" (published with Wolcott
Balestier)
- 1893:
"Many Inventions".
- 1894:
"The Jungle Book".
- 1895:
"The Second Jungle Book".
- 1896:
"The Seven Seas".
- 1897:
"Captains Courageous".
- 1898: "The
Day's Work".
- 1901:
"Kim".
- 1902:
"Just So Stories".
- 1903:
"The Five Nations".
- 1905: "They".
- 1906:
"Puck of Pook's Hill".
- 1907:
"The Brushwood Boy".
- 1909: "Actions
and Reactions".
- 1917:
"A Diversity of Creatures". "The Years Between".
- (1937):
"Something of Myself". (Autobiography)
Marriage:
1892 to Carrie (Caroline) Balestier the sister
of his American friend and writer Wolcott Balestier.
Date and Place of Death:
18th January 1936, London, England.
Age at Death:
70.
Site of Grave:
Poet’s Corner, Westminster Abbey, London,
England.
Westminster Abbey, London
(© Anthony Blagg)
Places of Interest:
SUSSEX:
Museum of the Rottingdean Preservation Society,
The Grange, Rottingdean .
Bateman's, Burwash.
YORKSHIRE:
The Green Howards Museum, Richmond.
Further Information:
Kipling Society
JW Michael Smith
Tre Cottage
2 Brownleoh Road
Brighton
E Sussex
BN7 6LB
