Page 143 - DENG203_ELECTIVE_ENGLISH_IV

Elective English—IV

Notes 8.1.3 Career as a Writer

London
In London, Kipling had several stories accepted by various magazine editors. He also found a
place to live for the next two years:
The experience in his own words: “Meantime, I had found me quarters in Villiers Street, Strand,
which forty-six years ago was primitive and passionate in its habits and population. My rooms
were small, not over-clean or well-kept, but from my desk I could look out of my window
through the fanlight of Gatti’s Music-Hall entrance, across the street, almost on to its stage.
The Charing Cross trains rumbled through my dreams on one side, the boom of the Strand on
the other, while, before my windows, Father Thames under the Shot Tower walked up and
down with his traffic”.

In the next two years, he published a novel, The Light that Failed, had a nervous breakdown,
and met an American writer and publishing agent, Wolcott Balestier, with whom he collaborated
on a novel, The Naulahka (a title which he uncharacteristically misspelt; see below). In 1891, on
the advice of his doctors, Kipling embarked on another sea voyage visiting South Africa, Australia,
New Zealand, and once again India. However, he cut short his plans for spending Christmas
with his family in India when he heard of Balestier’s sudden death from typhoid fever, and
immediately decided to return to London. Before his return, he had used the telegram to propose
to and be accepted by Wolcott’s sister Caroline Starr Balestier (1862–1939), called “Carrie”,
whom he had met a year earlier, and with whom he had apparently been having an intermittent
romance. Meanwhile, late in 1891, his collection of short stories of the British in India, Life’s
Handicap, was published in London.

On 18 January 1892, Carrie Balestier (aged 29) and Rudyard Kipling (aged 26) were married in
London, in the “thick of an influenza epidemic, when the undertakers had run out of black
horses and the dead had to be content with brown ones.” The wedding was held at All Souls
Church, Langham Place. Henry James gave the bride away.

Notes The house where Rudyard Kipling wrote some of his best-loved works including
the Just So Stories has gone on sale for £1.6m. The beautiful five-bedroom home is located
in the centre of Rottingdean, near Brighton, East Sussex and still features the study where
the author penned some of his works. Artist Sir Philip Burne-Jones 1899 even immortalised
the study in one of his portraits – which is now housed in the National Portrait Gallery.

On the exterior of the house is a blue plaque – installed by the Kipling Society to
commemorate the time Kipling spent in the property with his wife Carrie, the daughter of
American agent and publisher Wolcott Balestier, and their children. The stunning house,
complete with bay windows and gravel driveway, is on the market for £1,595,000.
It features four floors and includes a kitchen, dining room, family room, library, hallway,
dressing room, five bedrooms and two bathrooms. The author, whose works include The
Jungle Book and the Just So Stories, moved into the house, which backs on to the village
green, just before the turn of the 20th century. Previously, the family had live in Vermont,
America, before returning to Torquay, Devon following a dispute with Kipling’s American
agent.
Kipling then lived in the Rottingdean house - called The Elms at the time – from 1897 to
1903.
Contd...

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