Kipling Interviews and Recollections Volume 1 Other Interviews and Recollections volumes available on BRENDAN BEHAN (two volumes) edited by E. H. Mikhail DICKENS (two volumes) edited by Philip Collins HENRY JAMES edited by Norman Page D. H. LAWRENCE (two volumes) edited by Norman Page KARL MARX edited by David McLellan TENNYSON edited by Norman Page THACKERAY (two volumes) edited by Philip Collins H. G. WELLS edited by]. R. Hammond Further titles in preparation Also by Harold Orel THE WORLD OF VICTORIAN HUMOR SIX ESSAYS IN NINETEENTH-CENTURY ENGLISH LITERATURE AND THOUGHT (with George]. Worth) THOMAS HARDY'S EPIC-DRAMA: A Study of The Dynasts THOMAS HARDY'S PERSONAL WRITINGS (editor) THE DEVELOPMENT OF WILLIAM BUTLER YEATS: r88s~rgoo BRITISH POETRY r88o~rg2o: Edwardian Voices (with Paul Wil~) THE NINETEENTH-CENTURY WRITER AND HIS AUDIENCE (with George]. Worth) ENGLISH ROMANTIC POETS AND THE ENLIGHTEN­ MENT IRISH HISTORY AND CULTURE: Aspects of a People's Heritage THE FINAL YEARS OF THOMAS HARDY, rgr2~rg28 THOMAS HARDY: The Dynasts, New Wessex Edition (editor) THE SCOTTISH WORLD (with Mari!Jn Stokstad and Henry L. Snyder) KIPLING Interviews and Recollections Volume 1 Edited by Harold Orel Selection and editorial matter © Harold Orel 1983 Softcover reprint of the hardcover 1st edition 1983 978-0-333-27806-2 All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced or transmitted, in any form or by any means, without permission First published 1983 by THE MACMILLAN PRESS LTD London and Basingstoke Companies and representatives throughout the world ISBN 978-1-349-05108-3 ISBN 978-1-349-05106-9 (eBook) DOI 10.1007/978-1-349-05106-9 To Alan and Mary Bassett Contents Preface lX Acknowledgements Xl A Note on the Text XlV A Note on Kipling's Life XV INTERVIEWS AND RECOLLECTIONS PART I KIPLING'S FAMILY Rudyard 3 Some Reminiscences of my Brother Alice Macdonald ~~~ 5 My Brother, Rudyard Kipling (I) Alice Macdonald ~~~ 9 My Brother, Rudyard Kipling (2) Alice Macdonald Fleming I2 As a Tale that Is Told: Recollections of Many Years Frederic W. Macdonald 14 Some Memories of my Cousin Florence Macdonald I6 PART II WESTWARD HO! Kipling at School Michael Gifford White 25 Stalky's Reminiscences L. C. Dunsterville 27 Stalky's School-days L. C. Dunsterville 32 School-days with Kipling George Charles Beresford 35 Westward Ho! Reminiscences ]. C. Rimington 52 PART III JOURNALISM IN INDIA My First Book Rudyard Kipling 57 Rudyard Kipling's Early Association with Journalism Clive Rattigan 6I Kipling as a Journalist Clive Rattigan 63 Kipling in India E. Kay Robinson 67 Rudyard Kipling as Journalist E. Kay Robinson 8o VII Vlll CONTENTS Mr Kipling as Journalist E. Kay Robinson 84 Kipling- Some Recollections Michael 0'Dwyer 88 My Friend-Rudyard Kipling Edmonia Hill 9I The Young Kipling Edmonia Hill 95 Opium in India-a Medical Interview with Rudyard Kipling Robert H. M. Dawbarn I o8 'Bumptious and Above his Station' George Seaver I IO PART IV SUCCESS IN ENGLAND The Earliest of the 'Plain Tales' Max Pemberton I I3 Some Kipling Memories I I 5 Kipling's First Appearance Desmond Chapman-Huston I I8 Kipling among the Early Critics E. W. Martindell I 23 The House of Macmillan (I 843-I 943) Charles Morgan I 25 Authors and I C. Lewis Hind I 27 Kipling's First Story Ian Hamilton I 30 A Story of Rudyard Kipling Arthur Reed Kimball I 35 Kiplingiana I 37 'I've Got It All in my Head' Brander Matthews I 39 Memorials of Edward Burne-Jones La4J Georgiana Macdonald Burne-Jones I42 'My Friend Rudyard Kipling' H. Rider Haggard I44 'Kipling's Advice to Rider Haggard' Lilias Rider Haggard I47 The Encaenia of I907 Howard G. Baetzhold I53 'Kipling Is Not the Meekest of Men' Jerome K. Jerome I 56 Rudyard Kipling as I Knew Him G. A. Ballard I59 Mr Kipling Lucy Hilton I63 Dramatising 'The Story of the Gadsbys' Cosmo Hamilton I68 Preface Kipling's personality had a powerful impact on all kinds of people, and he met more of them, and in more widely-scattered corners of the world, than most writers. His natural instinct for speaking out on controversial issues made it difficult for those who did not know him at first-hand to make allowances for his diffidence (which was genuine), or for his willingness to compromise when out-argued or persuasively shown the error of his logic. Many readers became enthusiastic, angry, disgusted; it was difficult to remain neutral about Kipling the man when Kipling's writings attacked an exposed nerve. Yet to this day it is difficult to see Kipling plain. As a journalist in India, and in the various countries to which he had been sent on assignment, he appreciated the need for getting at the facts even if those in positions of authority found it expedient to deny him access. He believed that character was the key to much public policy, and he delighted in the personalities of writers. But he treasured privacy and insulted reporters who infringed on what he considered to be private matters; moved from one home to another because curiosity about his affairs became too insistent; and finally retreated to Bateman's, his seventeenth-century home in the village ofBurwash, Sussex. Bateman's was not easy to reach; but then Kipling did not want it to be. Those who call Kipling an 'imperialist' and 'jingo' as if the two terms are loosely interchangeable do not pay much attention to the changing phases of his career. Some critics succumb easily to the temptation to use the life to explicate the art, and the art to illuminate the life. There exists a very deep chasm between the disdain or disapproval of a very large number of literary critics, historians, and representatives of the Establishment, and the world­ wide popularity of Kipling's works. Kipling's life and career remain puzzling despite the passage of almost half a century since his burial in Westminster Abbey. The following selections, which have been culled from a vast IX X PREFACE literature of Kiplingiana, will provide an interested public with assessments made by a large number of individuals who knew Kipling. Cast in the form of interviews and recollections, these essays, which range in length from a few paragraphs to fairly substantial statements, provide a great deal of information about Kipling's family background, his formative years in India and at Westward Ho!, his journalistic assignments, his sensational debut in London society in the early 18gos, his curiously ambivalent relationship with the United States, his restless (almost feverish) travels, his growing international fame, his involvement with political and social issues, his family tragedies and his health problems, and his life during the eighteen years that followed the Great War. The materials for a synthesised portrait of one of the most original, talented and remarkable writers in the history of English literature are here in God's plenty, enabling readers to see the relationship between the locales he knew and the imaginative literature he created, and to evaluate him as a man. Here, then, is Mr Rudyard Kipling, as remembered by more than eighty men and women. Acknowledgements Thanks are due to the American Philosophical Society for a grant­ in-aid from the Primrose Fund; to Robert P. Cobb, Executive Vice­ Chancellor of the University of Kansas, and to Gerhard Zuther, Chairman of the English Department, for encouragement on this project; to Frances D. Horowitz, Vice-Chancellor for Research, Graduate Studies and Public Service, and Dean of the Graduate School, and Robert C. Bearse, Associate Vice-Chancellor in the same office, for their support, provided through the General Research Fund; to Sankaran Ravindran for his help on some problems relating to Kipling's years in India; to Mary Davidson for assistance in solving a variety of annotation questions; and to the following individuals for responding helpfully to specific inquiries: Mrs T. P. Srinivasan, William Fletcher, George J erkovich, Oliver C. Phillips, George]. Worth, L. E.James Helyar, Eleanor Symons and Helmut Huelsbergen. Nancy Kreighbaum, Peggy Wessel and Paula Oliver prepared the manuscript. I am grateful to those who staff the Reference Desk and take care oflnter-Library Loan Services at the University of Kansas Library, and to Alexandra Mason, Director, and William Mitchell, of the Spencer Research Library. Special thanks are due to Julia Steward and Valery Brooks of Macmillan for their thoughtful and helpful editorial assistance. Kipling's writings are dated in terms of their first publication, to enable readers to relate a particular poem, short story, or book to a period in his life. The basic authority used for these identifications is Rudjard Kipling: A Bibliographical Catalogue, by James MeG. Stewart, ed. A. W. Yeats (Toronto: Dalhousie University Press and Univer­ sity of Toronto Press, 1959). Difficult words, phrases, topical allusions, place-names and literary references are annotated when­ ever possible, and to the fullest extent within space limitations. While reviewing Kipling's own writings, I have found particularly helpful the 5672 pages of The Reader's Guide to Rudyard Kipling's Work, prepared by Roger Lancelyn Green, Alec Mason, and especially R. E. Harbord between 1961 and 1972 (Canterbury: Gibbs & Sons; later, Bournemouth: Bascombe Printers). All persons interested in Kipling are indebted to the contents of the Kipling Journal, published by the Kipling Society continuously since March xi Xll ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS I 92 7. A notable bibliography of secondary materials - of writings about Rudyard Kipling -was compiled and edited by Helmut E. Gerber and Edward Lauterbach, and published in English Fiction in Transition, III, nos 3-5 (I 960), and vm, nos 3-4 (I 965).