Being Kipling

Dillingham probes Rudyard Kipling's identity and world view, as Kipling himself perceived it, though an original analysis of Land and Sea Tales for Scouts and Guides. Being Kipling exposes Rudyard Kipling s identity as he himself perceived it through the lens of a collection of works composed over a period of years and brought together in the volume Land and Sea Tales for Scouts and Guides. Dillingham uses this extraordinary collection, ostensibly put together for the inspiration of Boy Scouts and Girl Guides and frequently ignored by critics and biographers, to offer rare insight into formative events from Kipling s youth that shaped his personality and made him the man and writer that he became. The eight stories, eight poems, and three essays of Land and Sea Tales for Scouts and Guides are all examined closely both for what they reveal about Kipling s life and worldview and for their rarely perceived, but considerable literary merit. Front Matter....Pages i-xiii Introduction: Being Fit....Pages 1-15 Being Modest....Pages 17-30 Being Wary....Pages 31-46 Being Unqualified....Pages 47-61 Being Called....Pages 63-74 Being Transported....Pages 75-87 Being Stalky....Pages 89-105 Being Heroic....Pages 107-122 Being Converted....Pages 123-138 Being Practical....Pages 139-155 Being English....Pages 157-173 Being “it”....Pages 175-189 Back Matter....Pages 191-238 This biography exposes Rudyard Kipling's identity as he himself perceived it through the lens of a collection of works composed over a period of years and brought together in the volume "Land and Sea Tales for Scouts and Guides." Dillingham uses this collection to offer rare insight into formative events from Kipling's youth that shaped his personality and made him the man and writer that he become