Collection

Rudyard Kipling Collection

• 1882-1982 (Creation)

6 boxes

This collection, compiled by Professor A. W. Yeats, contains numerous letters handwritten by Kipling, copies of Kipling letters, letters written by his sister Alice Fleming discussing her childhood with Kipling, and correspondence from Kipling's wife Caroline and daughter Elsie.

Included in the collection are many original newspaper clippings, poems, short stories, photos, drawings, . articles, a publishing contract, lists of various Kipling collections, material regarding the Kipling Society and the Last Will and Testaments of Rudyard Kipling, his wife Caroline and his sister Alice Fleming.

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 A&M 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.

This collection is organized into 6 series:

Series 1. General Correspondence. 1882-1950

Series 2. Copies of Related Correspondence from other Collections. 1886-1936

Series 3. Material by Kipling. 1888-1965

Series 4. Articles, Poems, Encounters, and Writings about Kipling. 1918-1940

Series 5. Material Relating to J.H.C. Brooking. 1961-1982

Series 6. Newspaper Clippings by Kipling. 1898-1976

Series 7. Miscellaneous Correspondence. 1895-1935

These materials are stored offsite and require additional time for retrieval.

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

• English

Dr. A. W. Yeats, 1980s.

The Cushing Memorial Library & Archives 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 1980s. Yeats, who earned a Ph.D. in literature from the University of Texas in 1961, worked as a book scout 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.

• Literature

• Yeats, A. W. (Accumulator)

• Manuscripts