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Elective English—IV

Notes in “The Woolsack”, a house on Cecil Rhodes’ estate at Groote Schuur(and now a student residence
for the University of Cape Town); it was within walking distance of Rhodes’ mansion. With his
new reputation as Poet of the Empire, Kipling was warmly received by some of the most
influential politicians of the Cape Colony, including Rhodes, Sir Alfred Milner, and Leander
Starr Jameson. Kipling cultivated their friendship and came to admire the men and their politics.
The period 1898–1910 was crucial in the history of South Africa and included the Second Boer
War (1899–1902), the ensuing peace treaty, and the 1910 formation of the Union of South Africa.
Back in England, Kipling wrote poetry in support of the British cause in the Boer War and on his
next visit to South Africa in early 1900, he became a correspondent for The Friend newspaper
in Bloemfontein, which had been commandeered by Lord Roberts for British troops. Although
his journalistic stint was to last only two weeks, it was Kipling’s first work on a newspaper staff
since he left The Pioneer in Allahabad more than ten years earlier. At The Friend he made lifelong
friendships with Perceval Landon, H.A. Gwynne and others. He also wrote articles published
more widely expressing his views on the conflict. Kipling penned an inscription for the Honoured
Dead Memorial(Siege memorial) in Kimberley.

Sussex

In 1897, Kipling moved from Torquay to Rottingdean, East Sussex; first to North End House and
later to The Elms. In 1902 Kipling bought Bateman’s, a house built in 1634 and located in
rural Burwash, East Sussex, England. Bateman’s was Kipling’s home from 1902 until his death in
1936. The house, along with the surrounding buildings, the mill and 33 acres (130,000 m ) was
2
purchased for £9,300. It had no bathroom, no running water upstairs and no electricity, but
Kipling loved it: “Behold us, lawful owners of a grey stone lichened house—A.D. 1634 over the
door—beamed, panelled, with old oak staircase, and all untouched and unfaked. It is a good and
peaceable place. We have loved it ever since our first sight of it.” (from a November 1902 letter).

8.1.4 Peak of his Career

In the non-fiction realm he also became involved in the debate over the British response to the
rise in German naval power known as the Tirpitz Plan to build a fleet to challenge the Royal
Navy, publishing a series of articles in 1898 which were collected as A Fleet in Being. On a visit
to the United States in 1899, Kipling and Josephine developed pneumonia, from which she
eventually died. Kipling began collecting material for another of his children’s classics, Just So
Stories for Little Children. That work was published in 1902; the year after Kim was first issued.
The first decade of the 20th century saw Kipling at the height of his popularity. In 1906 he wrote
the song ”Land of our Birth, We Pledge to Thee”. Kipling wrote two science fiction short
stories, With the Night Mail (1905) and As Easy as A. B. C. (1912), both set in the 21st century in
Kipling’s Aerial Board of Control universe. These read like modern hard science fiction, and
introduced the literary technique known as indirect exposition, which would later become one
of Heinlein’s trademarks.
In 1907 he was awarded the Nobel Prize for Literature. The prize citation said: “In consideration
of the power of observation, originality of imagination, virility of ideas and remarkable talent
for narration which characterize the creations of this world-famous author.” Nobel prizes had
been established in 1901 and Kipling was the first English-language recipient. At the award
ceremony in Stockholm on 10 December 1907, the Permanent Secretary of the Swedish
Academy, Carl David af Wirsén, praised both Kipling and three centuries of English literature:
The Swedish Academy, in awarding the Nobel Prize in Literature this year to Rudyard Kipling,
desires to pay a tribute of homage to the literature of England, so rich in manifold glories, and
to the greatest genius in the realm of narrative that that country has produced in our times.

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