The Foreloper

urn:taro:tamu.cush.00076 Inventory of The Rudyard Kipling Collection: Finding aid prepared by Melanie Hill Cushing Memorial LibraryTexas A & M University

College Station, TX 77843-5000 Phone: 979/845-1951 Fax: 979/845-1441 Email: cushing-library@tamu.edu

1999 Finding aid encoded by Kimberly Damron in EAD Version 2002 as part of the TARO project. August 2004 Finding aid written inEnglish. 04/19/2006. This electronic finding aid was updated by Melissa Zajicek. Updates include : a new folder containing an autographed letter. Descriptive Summary and Abstract Cushing Memorial Library

College Station, TX 77843-5000

Kipling, Rudyard Inventory of the The Rudyard Kipling Collection: 1882-1982 4 linear ft. The Cushing Memorial Library collects books, manuscripts, and other items relating to the life and works of Rudyard Kipling. The core of the collection was acquired by the Library from Dr. A. W. Yeats in the late 1980's. The collection, through a large display of original and reproduced letters, as well as many newspaper clippings and articles written about him, gives a peek at the kind of everyday tasks that Rudyard, as a famous author, and his wife Caroline had to contend with. There are some 36 Rudyard Kipling autograph pieces, all of which are letters excluding a few poems and miscellaneous items. Along with the letters, clippings, and many books in the Rudyard Kipling Collection at Texas AM University, the collection contains items such as an autograph copy of The Foreloper framed with an illustration by an unidentified artist, the manuscript for The Maltese Cat, and the ledger book of Mr. T.E. Elwell, an early member of the Kipling Society, who made many notes and collected numerous clippings towards a Kipling bibliography. In the Contents, bold folder numbers indicate an autograph Rudyard Kipling piece. Lit/Kipling MSS 00076 English. Biographical Note

Rudyard Kipling was born in Bombay, India in 1865 to English parents. He was educated in England, but returned to India in 1882, where he worked for Anglo-Indian newspapers and began his literary career, chiefly as a writer of short stories. He was awarded the Nobel Prize in Literature in 1907. Rudyard Kipling died in 1936.

Dr. A.W. Yeats earned a Ph.D. in literature from the University of Texas in 1961, and worked as a bookscout for the University. After receiving his Ph.D., he taught for many years at Lamar University in Beaumont, Texas.

Scope and Content Note

The Cushing Memorial Library collects books, manuscripts, and other items relating to the life and works of Rudyard Kipling. The core of the collection was acquired by the Library from Dr. A. W. Yeats in the late 1980's. Yeats, who earned a Ph.D. in literature from the University of Texas in 1961, worked as a bookscout for the University of Texas, first under the direction of Fannie Ratchford, then director of the Rare Books Collection, and later for Harry Ransom and the Humanities Research Center. His dissertation was the Kipling Collections in the James McG. Stewart and the University of Texas Libraries: An Appraisal of Resources for Literary Investigation. He also edited the monumental and pioneering Rudyard Kipling: A Bibliographic Catalogue (Toronto: Dalhousie University Press and the University of Toronto Press, 1959), by James McG. Stewart. After receiving his Ph.D., Yeats taught for many years at Lamar University in Beaumont, Texas.

The collection, through a large display of original and reproduced letters, gives a peek at the kind of everyday tasks that Rudyard, as a famous author, and his wife Caroline had to contend with. Through its many newspaper clippings and articles written about him, the collection shows how eminent Rudyard Kipling was as a writer both in the 19th and the 20th centuries. It also serves as an introduction to the Kipling Society, its founding and difficulties therein, as well as the struggles legal and otherwise that surrounded Kipling's work during his life, continuing many years after his death. The collection contains interesting facts about the Kipling family, including some light genealogy, the places they lived and visited, and the people they knew.

There are some thirty-six Rudyard Kipling autograph pieces, all of which are letters excluding a few poems and miscellaneous items. The collection contains many original letters of Alice Fleming, Caroline Kipling, Elsie (Kipling) Bambridge, J.H.C. Brooking, A.W. Yeats and various others as well as many copies of letters from other Kipling collections throughout the country. In addition to any personal correspondence, there are many letters and notes, several minutes, member lists and other paraphernalia of the Kipling Society founded by J.H.C. Brooking in 1926 (?). There is an assortment of page-proofs, galleys, original drafts, and copies of Kipling's poems, short stories, and manuscripts, along with a wide range of newspaper clippings dealing with all aspects of Kipling's life and influences on society. In addition, the collection has several original and copied catalogs from bookseller's and auction houses holding Kipling material.

Along with the letters, clippings, and many books in the Rudyard Kipling Collection at Texas AM University, the collection contains items such as an autograph copy of The Foreloper framed with an illustration by an unidentified artist, the manuscript for The Maltese Cat, and the ledger book of Mr. T.E. Elwell, an early member of the Kipling Society, who made many notes and collected numerous clippings towards a Kipling bibliography.

Organization of the Papers

This collection is organized into 6 series:

Series 1. General Correspondence primarily from Rudyard Kipling, 1882-1950. Series 2. Copies of Rudyard Kipling and Rudyard Kipling related correspondence from other Kipling Collections, Sept. 14 1886-1936. Series 3. Material by Rudyard Kipling, March 1888-December 1965. Series 4. Articles, poems, encounters, writings about Rudyard Kipling, Feb. 19, 1918-1940. Series 5. Material relating to J.H.C. Brooking, Oct. 31, 1961-July 28, 1982. Series 6. Newspaper clippings by Rudyard Kipling, 1898-1976. Series 7. Miscellaneous correspondence, 1895-1935. Access

No restrictions.

Usage Restrictions

Copyright is retained by the authors of items in these papers, or their descendants, as stipulated by United States copyright law.

Online Catalog Terms

This collection is indexed under the following headings in the online catalog of Cushing Memorial Library. Researchers wishing to find related materials should search the catalog under these index terms.

Names Yeats, A.W. (Alvice Whitehurst), 1910- Kipling, Rudyard, 1865-1936. Fleming, Alice Macdonald, b. 1868. Kipling, Caroline, 1865-1939. Bambridge, Elsie, 1896?- Brooking, J.H.C. Organizations Kipling Society. Processing Information

Processed by Melanie Hill in 1999.

Detailed Description of the Collection Series 1. General Correspondence primarily from Rudyard Kipling, 1882-1950. 1/10 Scope Note and Contents 1/20 Copy of a letter from Rudyard Kipling (RK) to Rev. G. Wiles. November 17, 1882. Handwritten copy, 4 leaves and typed transcription, 4 leaves. Re: working hours, writing, correspondence, a vision, a Sikh. 1/30 Copy of a letter from RK to Rev. G. Wiles. April 24, 1883. Handwritten copy, 3 leaves and typed transcription, 3 leaves. Re: annual dinner in Calcutta, weather and scenery in India, Chronicles. 1/40 Copy of a letter from RK to Rev. G. Wiles. June 29, 1883. Handwritten copy, 2 leaves and typed transcription, 2 leaves. Re: Willes marriage, activities in India, dog-cart accident. 1/50 RK to Audrey D'Ouseley Gillon. August 21, 1894. ALS, 1 page and copy of typed transcription, 1 page. A verse written by RK to Miss Gillon, age 6 months.