Rudyard Kipling collection

The collection comprises of correspondence by Kipling to the Antarctic explorer Sir Ernest Henry Shackleton.

(Joseph) Rudyard Kipling was born on 30 December 1865 in Bombay, India. He was educated at the United Services College, Westward Ho!, in England, returning to India in 1882, where he worked for Anglo-Indian newspapers. In 1889, he left India, travelling extensively before permanently settling in England. His literary career began with Departmental Ditties (1886) and he achieved international success with works such as Jungle Book (1894), Stalky and Co. (1899), Just So Stories for Little Children (1902) and Kim (1901). In 1907, he was awarded the Nobel Prize for Literature and received numerous honours throughout his life, including the gold medal of the Royal Society for Literature in 1926. An unfinished autobiography, Something of Myself, was published posthumously in 1937. He died after an operation in London on 18 January 1936.

The correspondence with Sir Ernest is arranged chronologically.

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The term holograph is used when the item is wholly in the handwriting of the author. The term autograph is used when the author has signed the item.

Descriptions compiled by N. Boneham, Assistant Archivist with assistance from R. Stancombe and reference to literature and Dictionary of National Biography, 1931-1940, Oxford University Press London (1950) and Who was who, 1929-1940, Adam & Charles Black London (1947)

Clive Holland Manuscripts in the Scott Polar Research Institute, Cambridge, England - a catalogue, Garland Publishing New York and London (1982) ISBN 0824093941.

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