Freemason and British Prime Minister's Cousin: 7 Facts About Rudyard Kipling

2024 Author: Richard Flannagan | [email protected]. Last modified: 2023-12-15 23:55

Many Russian readers are well aware of Kipling's works, but few know how Kipling himself lived. In general terms, it is clear to everyone that he visited all or almost all hot corners of the empire. However, the person is not limited to this, and there are many things in Kipling's life that influenced his work.

The writer has a pagan name

The writer’s full name was Joseph Rudyard Kipling. In the custom of Victorian England, this meant that he was using the middle name, Rudyard, and Joseph was only for official occasions. Now, the name Rudyard is not from some old saint. This is a very old topographic name, which means "red fence", and Kipling got it from the name of the lake where the parents met - which is in the spirit of pagan customs. Then the British actively began to turn to their pagan past, realizing that it was an important part of the culture.

Kipling comes from a very talented family

Kipling owes his first name to his paternal grandfather, the Reverend Joseph Kipling. Both of the writer's parents were from a family of priests - his maternal grandfather was the Reverend George MacDonald. Actually, Rudyard's father, John Lockwood Kipling, was an architecture teacher at the school of art. Two uncles - husbands of maternal aunts - were famous artists, the Pre-Raphaelite Edward Burne-Jones and the president of the Royal Academy of Arts, Edward Poynter. In addition, her maternal aunt, Louise Baldwin, was a well-known poet. Her son, Prime Minister Stanley Baldwin, was thus a cousin of Rudyard Kipling, writer Oliver Baldwin was a first cousin, and another cousin of Rudyard is the artist Philip Burne-Jones. The writers, like Kipling, were the children of his cousin, Angela Turkell and Dennis McKale.

Kipling is often regarded by Indians as an Indian writer

When the Russians find out about this, they assume that in this way the Indians are paying tribute to the story of the boy Mowgli, which has become so popular around the world. In fact, the fact is that Rudyard was born in India, in Bombay. True, he spent only the first five years of his life there. Then he was sent to study in England, and he managed to return to India only at the age of seventeen. For several years after that, he worked as a journalist in his country of birth.

Kipling addressed the topic of India not only in stories about Mowgli. In Britain, much more popular was his story "Kim" about the adventures of an Irish boy in India. In Russia, this story was not so loved because of the Russians written out as antagonists - after all, Kim's adventures unfold against the background of the Great Game of the two great powers of that time for influence over Asia.

Kipling wrote fantasy

Kipling's short tales are well known in Russia, but little is known about his fantasy stories based on English folklore - "Pak from the Hills" and "Awards and Fairies". Excerpts from the first book are sometimes taught in English classes, but overall it was read by far fewer children than it was worth. Motives from Kipling's books and references to them constantly pop up in modern English fantasy.

Kipling was politically active

Towards the end of his life, Kipling became very interested in politics and made political statements. As one would expect from the author of poems about the burden of the white man, Rudyard showed conservative views, in particular, opposed feminism. The impending war with Germany (World War I) seemed to him a chance to once again glorify British weapons.

But for the Kipling family, this war turned into a personal tragedy: Rudyard's son John died. After that, In one of the "Epitaphs of the War" (poems about the experience of the First World War), he wrote: "If someone asks why we died, Answer them, because our fathers lied to us."

For all the ambiguity of his attitude to the national question, relevant to the British Empire, Kipling unequivocally did not welcome the coming of the National Socialists to power in Germany, and after Hitler became the head of the country, he fundamentally abandoned the logo containing the Indian swastika on his books.

Kipling was a Freemason

Back in India, Kipling became a member of the local Masonic lodge - he was introduced there by the Indian and Hindu Brahmo Somage. In general, the composition of the lodge and Masonic beliefs led to a significant softening of Kipling's views on the "natural place" of different peoples - in Britain he was accustomed to the idea of the inferiority of other cultures in comparison with the English. Although, in general, Rudyard continued to regard colonial policy as England's desire to bring progress to all corners of the earth, he had great respect for the achievements of various kinds of local cultures.

Sometimes Kipling's Freemasonry is associated with his friendship with the English King George V - they say, Masons always try to make such acquaintances. But the story of this friendship is simpler. The king somehow grew up on the books of Kipling and, when he met him while traveling to Europe in person, of course, he wanted to get to know him better.

Kipling - Nobel Prize Laureate

Moreover, he was the first British writer to receive it, and the youngest Nobel Prize winner in literature. The age record has not yet been broken by anyone. At the time of receiving the award, Kipling was forty-two years old.

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