Collection of papers relating to Rudyard Kipling (1865-1936)

The manuscript material is composed of sheets of verse from The diversity of creatures (1917) and The eyes of Asia. There is also a letter from Kipling to James Couper H. Brash and A. Christian Gillan declining an invitation to be nominated as a candidate in the Edinburgh University rectorial election, 1935.

The author Joseph Rudyard Kipling was born in Bombay on 30 December 1865. He was the son of the architectural sculptor and designer John Lockwood Kipling (1837-1911) and a cousin of Stanley Baldwin (1867-1947). He was educated at United Services College, Westward Ho! North Devon. In 1882, he joined the staff of the Civil and military gazette and pioneer in Lahore, and became Assistant Editor serving until 1889. He then settled in London though travelled widely in China, Japan, America, Africa, and Australia. From 1902 he lived in Burwash. His early writing included Plain tales from the hills (1887), Soldiers three and Wee Willie Winkie. Other stories and verse such as The light that failed (1891), The jungle book (1894), Second jungle book (1895), and Captains Courageous (1897) brought him to the height of his fame. His publications also included Barrack-room ballads (1897), Kim (1901), the Just so stories for little children (1902), Puck of Pook's hill (1906), and A school history of England (1911). In 1907 Kipling was awarded the Nobel Prize for Literature. Rudyard Kipling, who was a cousin of Stanley Baldwin, died on 18 January 1936.

Generally open for consultation to bona fide researchers, but please contact repository for details in advance.

In local Index, volume original manuscripts gifted by Rudyard Kipling to Edinburgh University and transmitted through Mrs. Kipling, 1936, noted Acc.23034. Letter, acquired from J. C. H. Brash, April 1982, Accession no. E82.25.

The biographical/administrative history was compiled using the following material: (1) Who was who 1929-1940. London: Adam and Charles Black, 1941. (2) The dictionary of national biography. The concise dictionary. Part 2. 1901-1970. Oxford: OUP, 1982.

Compiled by Graeme D Eddie, Edinburgh University Library, Special Collections Division.

Important finding aids generally are: the alphabetical Index to Manuscripts held at Edinburgh University Library, Special Collections and Archives, consisting of typed slips in sheaf binders and to which additions were made until 1987; and the Index to Accessions Since 1987.

Check the local Indexes for details of any additions.

The UK National Register of Archives (NRA), updated by the Historical Manuscripts Commission, notes material in the UK: correspondence, literary MSS and papers, c. 1880-1947, Sussex University Library Special Collections, Ref. SxMs 38 NRA 22631 Kipling, and correspondence and papers relating to school life and friends in particular George Beresford, Ref. SxMs 69, and letters (9) to L. C. Dunsterville, 1886-1928, Ref. SxMs67 NRA 41274 Sussex Uni Misc, and letters (51) to Harry Lewin, 1920-1935, and correspondence and literary MSS kept by Miss Parker, his secretary, 1902-1904, Ref. SxMs66 NRA 41274 Sussex Uni Misc; literary MSS, British Library, Manuscript Collections, Ref. Add MSS 44481, 45540-42, 59840, and correspondence with Macmillans, corrected proofs, 1890-1936, British Library, Manuscript Collections, Ref. Add MSS 54940, 55846-75, and correspondence with Society of Authors, 1909-1922, Ref. Add MSS 56734; MS of Puck of Pook's Hill, 1906, and letters, 1902-1912, Oxford University, Bodleian Library, Special Collections and Western manuscripts, Ref. MS Eng misc c 127; MS Autogr b 11/453-467, and correspondence with Lady Milner (127 items), 1902-1938, Ref. MS Violet Milner NRA 20659 Milner, and MS of Rewards and Fairies, 1910, Ref. Add 6850; letters (19), 1882-1935, and literary MSS, Huntington Library; correspondence and papers relating to Imperial War Graves Commission, Commonwealth War Graves Commission, Ref. passim NRA 40692 Commonwealth; letters to Sir Percy Bates, 1924-1936, National Maritime Museum, Manuscripts Section, Ref. MS 82/158 NRA 20623 Nat Maritime Mus, and letters to Leslie Cope-Cornford, 1903-1928, Ref. CPC NRA 30121; letters from Lord Bathurst, 1910-1935, Leeds University, Brotherton Library, Ref. Ms Dep 1990/1 part II NRA 35050 Glenesk; correspondence with Lord Beaverbrook, 1910-1918, House of Lords Record Office, The Parliamentary Archives, Ref. BBK C/197-9 NRA 19284 Aitken, and correspondence with John St. Loe Strachey, 1898-1924, Ref. Strachey 33/1; letters to Samuel Levi Bensusan, Essex University Library; letters (24) to J. H. C. Brooking, 1907-1935, Kipling Society; correspondence with Edward Carson, Public Record Office of Northern Ireland, Ref. D1507 NRA 17985 Carson; letters to Sir Henry Rider Haggard, Norfolk Record Office, NRA 22737 Haggard; letters to the Leonard family, Hagley Hall, NRA 14545 Lyttelton; and, correspondence with Douglas Sladen, 1895-1919, Richmond Local Studies Library, Ref. SLA/6-8, 17, 31, 58, 68 NRA 14252 Sladen.