Today in 1865 – Birth of Rudyard Kipling

What, two 19th century birthdays in a row?  Well, yes, and believe it or not December 30th is a pretty slow day as far as occurrences or birthdays go, so you might see Kipling revisited next year!

Rudyard Kipling (1865-1936) was born to British parents living in India, where he would spend the first six years of his life and which would influence his writing throughout his life.  Kipling won the Nobel Prize in Literature in 1907, though he was often later accused of espousing colonialism through his characters, some even thought him a racist for his portrayal of Indian characters.  Still, Kipling has found support from respected poets over the past century including T.S. Eliot and Jorge Luis Borges.

I remember loving the Rikki-Tikki-Tavi cartoon when I was a kid, and his Jungle Book (1894) collection of stories still remains popular children’s literature.  Kipling is responsible for major works in novel form, such as Captains Courageous (1897) and Kim (1901), as well as short stories such as The Man Who Would Be King (1888), and poetry including Gunga Din (1890).  And, of course, all of those titles I’ve just mentioned were also adapted into successful films, probably the most popular of which today would be the 1939 classic Gunga Din starring Cary Grant, Victor McLaglen and Douglas Fairbanks, Jr.  Others may be partial to Spencer Tracy’s Oscar-winning performance in 1937’s Captains Courageous.

Kipling also gains notable mention in film history books for his 1897 poem The Vampire, from which the first four words were taken as title to the 1915 film, A Fool There Was, all in all a pretty lousy film, but the one responsible for propelling Theda Bara to fame as the most identifiable vamp in film history.

Rudyard Kipling’s original work is still highly collected in magazine form as well.  Note the 1901 copyright date on Kim above and then absorb the fact that it was originally published in McClure’s Magazine from December 1900 through October 1901.  According to Wikipedia the novel was not published in book form until October 1901, which was when the final installment ran in McClure’s.

As a major world figure in the early 20th Century Kipling also found himself the subject of many magazine articles, all of which are collectible to someone with an interest in Kipling, but obviously few of which approach the value of issues containing his original writing.  An exception to this would be the September 27, 1926 issue of Time Magazine shown at the top of this piece, which featured him on the front cover.

It’s often beyond that front cover that we’re interested in as magazine collectors, but it can be very difficult to cobble together information about what appeared where and when.  In the case of a major author such as Kipling, a good place to start would be Kipling bibliographies, though I’m hoping that I can grow my magawiki site into a worthwhile resource for finding magazine appearances by personalities as major as Kipling down to others you’ve barely even heard of.

I’ve sold I’m currently offering a May 1898 issue of McClure’s Magazine which contains original publication of Rudyard Kipling’s war poem The Destroyers.  Here’s a peek at the front cover which makes mention of Kipling at the top of the page: