Words...A Powerful Drug    

Great authors and their life and works are a source of facsination and influence, none more so than Rudyard Kipling and his poems and stories. His adventure novel, Captains Courageous, is mentioned in Pastel Orphans, and I borrowed the author’s name “Rudy” for In a Field of Blue. His poem, "For All That We Have And Are", about the invasion of Germany into Belgium, along with the tragic loss of his son in WWI, formed the premise of Half in Shadow.

Kipling provided us with an enormous body of work to enjoy. Born in India in 1865, his parents would shortly send him and his sister back to England to live in the care of others. He struggled with early learning, his poor eyesight suggested as a possible cause. Finishing his final school years in England, and unable to obtain sponsorship or the funds for Oxford, he returned to India at sixteen years of age to commence his writing career as an assistant editor and journalist. During this period, he was a prolific storyteller in his spare time, his inspiration drawn from other writers and famous adventurers, and penning such works as The Man Who Would Be King.

Returning to England at twenty-three, his celebrity preceding him, he continued writing short stories and novels including his Barrack-Room Ballads. Further success abroad would lead him to the US, where he settled for a period with his American wife, Caroline—sister of Wolcott Balestier, his editor and publisher—and their three children. During his life in Vermont, he wrote Captains Courageous and The Jungle Books. Though his books made him a public figure, his criticisms of America’s anti-British views at the time along with his indifference to interviews made him unpopular in some circles, and a family dispute with another brother-in-law would eventually see him back in England.

He spent a period in South Africa during the Boer War in 1899 visiting hospitals and writing about the conflict. During a return to the US, his seven-year-old daughter Florence died of pneumonia. Grief returned the family once more to England where he would finally settle and seek seclusion. Kim and Rewards and Fairies would follow, the latter to include his famous poem "If—". In 1995, "If—" was voted the UK’s favourite poem.

It is not certain whether "My Boy Jack" was written for his son John, known also as ‘Jack’, who was killed on the battlefields of France in 1915, but the poem is certainly poignant and could apply to the loss of any young man in the line of duty.  Like his father, John was short-sighted and originally rejected to serve. Still eager to join up, John convinced his father to use his influence to see him enter war. But this soon-to-be grieving father could not have foreseen that the war with heavy casualties would go on for years nor that his son would serve only three weeks in battle. The wait to confirm his death was yet another two years after news of him missing.  John was only eighteen when he died.

Kipling criticised Germany’s conquest of China and opined that the Kaiser would be a problem to Britain well over a decade before the commencement of WWI. The “Hun” was first mentioned by Kipling in his poem "The Rowers" published in 1902. Kipling was originally in favour of his country’s participation in battle; however, after the death of his son, he developed more pacifist leanings. He also worked for the War Graves Commission and created the epitaph, "A soldier of the Great War--Known Unto God" for unknown soldiers.

Kipling was the youngest writer to have received the Nobel Prize for Literature and the first Briton to receive the Pulitzer Prize for Literature. Although a public figure, he attempted to avoid the attention that came with it. For this reason, and for the notion that further accolade might interrupt his writing, he declined the ‘Poet Laureateship’ and a knighthood.

For anyone of note, he had his share of criticisms. These included his “imperialist” writings, his so-called “lurid” scenes, and his aversion to 'socialist agitators' as reflected in his poem, "The Walking Delegate". Though sometimes, for the same reason he was disliked he was also favoured. Oscar Wilde complimented his “superb flashes of vulgarity”. Kipling seemed an easy target to dislike but too versatile a man to fully understand. He was keenly aware of the times and would occasionally change his views accordingly. One cannot deny that Kipling’s vast experiences abroad gave him certain insight that others may have lacked, and despite detractions he would continue doing what he did best. His quote, "Words are, of course, the most powerful drug of mankind" stays with me, and the sheer volume of work is difficult to discuss in one short essay.

Shortly before his death in 1936, he would write about his life in Something of Myself. He has left behind a gift of words and still to this day has a large fan base and sites to honour him. Since the early 1900s, a number of his books have been made into films.

Gemma Liviero

References and Further Reading
Crim, Robert. "The 100 best novels: No 34 – Kim by Rudyard Kipling (1901)", The Guardian, 2014.
Gilmour, David. The Long Recessional: The Imperial Life of Rudyard Kipling, Farrar, Straus and Giroux; Reprint edition, June 11, 2003.
Kipling, Rudyard. Something of Myself, Macmillan & Co. Ltd. 1937.
Porter, Bernard. London Review of Books, ‘So Much to Hate’, Vol. 24 No. 8 · 25 April 2002.
Poetry Foundation, https://www.poetryfoundation.org/poets/rudyard-kipling, accessed July 2024.
The Kipling Society, https://www.kiplingsociety.co.uk, accessed July 2024.
Images: Wikipedia, Photo of R. Kipling, and Goodreads, book covers.