December 30: Rudyard Kipling was born in Bombay on this day in
1856. Although one of England's most popular writers at the turn of the
century, and a Nobel winner in 1907, by the time of his death in 1936 Kipling
was not merely forgotten but scorned. To the intellectuals and political Left
he was a dinosaur of Empire; to the modernist writers and the literati he was a
mere tale-teller and balladeer. Unsurprisingly, the literary world that had
flocked to Thomas Hardy's interment in Westminster Abbey eight years earlier stayed
away in droves when Kipling was placed beside him.
More recent biographers
and critics have made a case for regarding at least the later Kipling as a more
complex man and writer than given credit. One view is that, if Kipling's style
and themes evolved, the cause may have been personal tragedy. His only son,
Jack, was killed in action in WWI—still a teenager, and on his first day of
combat, last heard shouting "Come on, boys!" to his command. As told
in Toni and Valmai Holt's recent My Boy Jack? a double biography of
father and son, the details and aftermath of Jack's death make, at the least, a
poignant story.
Declared "missing in
action" in 1915, Jack's body was lost in the No Man's Land of Loos, France
for years, and then his unidentified remains were buried in a grave marked "AN
UNKNOWN LIEUTENANT OF THE IRISH GUARDS." In 1919, having finally accepted
the fact of his son's death, Kipling began searching for the body. He toured
many military graveyards in France, and one time even visited the "UNKNOWN
LIEUTENANT" gravesite, not knowing it was his son's. This was determined
in 1992, and confirmed in 2002, though the authors of My Boy Jack? say
that questions remain. In any case, Kipling carried to his own grave a measure
of guilt for having used his influence to get Jack a commission when he was
barely eighteen, and for having instilled in him a zeal for battle.
Kipling between the wars
was no pacifist, but one of his later stories, "The Gardener," tells
of a tormented parent seeking for the grave of her son, fallen in action, and
for redemption.
Daybook is contributed by Steve King, who teaches in the English Department of Memorial University in St. John's, Newfoundland. His literary daybook began as a radio series syndicated nationally in Canada. He can be found online at todayinliterature.com.
Subscribe
Email
Print
Share
Please sign in to add a comment on this article.