AbstractsLanguage, Literature & Linguistics

Rudyard Kipling was born at Bombay, India in 1865, in the midst of a period during which England and all her neighboring nations were busy with wars—-wars either for the purpose of adding more territory or of keeping that already gained. His family background and inheritance gave him an active, seeking mind, a tenacity of purpose, and a love of words and books. His early years spent in India where he learned to speak both the native Hindustani and English—the former, the more fluently—-began his education for an understanding of Empire. His schooling in England away from his family gave him added knowledge which was to further that understanding. Possibly the years spent at Southsea were bitter; but they certainly drove him headlong into the world of books and laid a foundation for his life work. Certainly his school days at Westward Ho: were profitable since, under the guidance of his masters, his desire to write took full possession of him. Into his years at school his father introduced an interlude-—his visit to Paris during the Exhibition of '78. There he acquired his first ideas of international relationships, learned to speak French and to love France. From his visit he returned to school with more material stored in his restless, active mind. He learned to write on many subjects, using his pen as an instrument of praise or torture. Before he left the achool he had had several poems published by magazines which paid him for his work. In addition, his mother had collected and privately published a volume of the poems which he had sent her from time to time during those school days. And he had shown by his Ave Imperatrix a trace of that imperialism which was to grow. The years spent in India serving on the editorial staff of two papers—-the "Civil and Militay Gazette" in Lahore and later the "Pioneer" in Allahabad—-taught Kipling many things which were to add to his growth as an imperialistic poet. He gained first hand knowledge of the work of both the Armed Forces and the Civil Commissions from long arguments and talks in the Club. He made friends with the British soldiers and laid the basis for his poems of those soldiers which were to make him famous. Both papers used the young man as a roving reporter and so his knowledge of India and all her peoples was greatly increased. Also, through his habit of night wandering, he came in close contact with the natives in their own environment. Both papers began to use his poems and short stories as material to fill in gaps was needed-—thus he learned to say much in little space and acquired his versatility of expression. The collection of these into two volumes was to be his first published adult work. Always and increasingly through the years Kipling desired to return to England and to visit the widespread colonies of what he was beginning to think of as Empire. At last he persuaded the "Pioneer" to give him a roving commission and selling the rights to his few volumes he started for England, via Japan and United States, arriving in London in 1889. It was during…