Letters of Rudyard Kipling: 1931-36, Vol. 6 Book

The most popular author of his day and a paradox who was both an assertive British imperialist and a man of sensitivity and wide reading, Rudyard Kipling is best remembered now as the author of The Jungle Book, the Just-So Stories, and Kim. He won the Nobel Prize for Literature in 1907—the first Englishman to receive this prize. Fully annotated, volumes 5 and 6 conclude the publication of Kipling’s letters, a heroic effort that began with the publication of volume 1 in 1990. The sixth and last volume focuses on Kipling’s final years. Despite his increased suffering, he traveled a great deal (Egypt, France, Marienbad, and Monte Carlo, plus a tour of the Midlands in his new Rolls Royce), published three books (Limits and Renewals, Souvenirs of France, and Collected Dog Stories), and was made an honorary fellow of Magdalene College and a member of the Institut de France. Aware of his approaching end, he worked at two great retrospective efforts: the splendid Sussex Edition and the autobiographical Something of Myself; both were published posthumously. On January 18, 1936, he died in Middlesex Hospital; his ashes are buried in the Poet’s Corner, Westminster Abbey. Each volume contains a chronology of Kipling’s life from 1920–30 and 1931–36, respectively; volume 6 also includes errata for the first four volumes and a comprehensive index to all six volumes of this distinguished collection.