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If: The Untold Story of Kipling's American Years
A unique exploration of the life and work of Rudyard Kipling in Gilded Age America, from a celebrated scholar of American literature
At the turn of the twentieth century, Rudyard Kipling towered over not just English literature, but the entire literary world. At the height of his fame in 1907, he was awarded the Nobel Prize for Literature, becoming its youngest winner. His influence on figures—including the likes of Freud and William James—was vast and profound. But in recent decades Kipling’s reputation has suffered a strange eclipse. Though his body of work still looms large, and his monumental poem “If—” is quoted and referenced by politicians, athletes, and professors, he himself is treated with profound unease as a man on the wrong side of history. In If, scholar Christopher Benfey brings this fascinating writer to life and, for the first time, gives full attention to his intense engagement with the United States—a rarely discussed but critical piece of evidence in our understanding of this man and his enduring legacy.
Benfey traces the writer’s deep involvement with America over one crucial decade, from 1889 to 1899, when he lived for four years in Brattleboro, Vermont, and sought deliberately to turn himself into a specifically American writer. It was his most prodigious and creative period, as well as his happiest, during which he wrote The Jungle Book and Captains Courageous. Had a family dispute not forced his departure, Kipling almost certainly would have stayed. Leaving was the hardest thing he ever had to do, Kipling said. “There are only two places in the world where I want to live,” he lamented, “Bombay and Brattleboro. And I can’t live in either.”
In this fresh examination of Kipling, Benfey hangs a provocative “what if” over Kipling’s American years and maps the imprint Kipling left on his adopted country as well as the imprint the country left on him. If proves there is relevance and magnificence to be found in Kipling’s work.
At the turn of the twentieth century, Rudyard Kipling towered over not just English literature, but the entire literary world. At the height of his fame in 1907, he was awarded the Nobel Prize for Literature, becoming its youngest winner. His influence on figures—including the likes of Freud and William James—was vast and profound. But in recent decades Kipling’s reputation has suffered a strange eclipse. Though his body of work still looms large, and his monumental poem “If—” is quoted and referenced by politicians, athletes, and professors, he himself is treated with profound unease as a man on the wrong side of history. In If, scholar Christopher Benfey brings this fascinating writer to life and, for the first time, gives full attention to his intense engagement with the United States—a rarely discussed but critical piece of evidence in our understanding of this man and his enduring legacy.
Benfey traces the writer’s deep involvement with America over one crucial decade, from 1889 to 1899, when he lived for four years in Brattleboro, Vermont, and sought deliberately to turn himself into a specifically American writer. It was his most prodigious and creative period, as well as his happiest, during which he wrote The Jungle Book and Captains Courageous. Had a family dispute not forced his departure, Kipling almost certainly would have stayed. Leaving was the hardest thing he ever had to do, Kipling said. “There are only two places in the world where I want to live,” he lamented, “Bombay and Brattleboro. And I can’t live in either.”
In this fresh examination of Kipling, Benfey hangs a provocative “what if” over Kipling’s American years and maps the imprint Kipling left on his adopted country as well as the imprint the country left on him. If proves there is relevance and magnificence to be found in Kipling’s work.
256 pages, Hardcover
First published July 1, 2019
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469 people want to read
About the author
Christopher E.G. Benfey
23 books20 followersChristopher Benfey is Mellon Professor of English at Mount Holyoke. He is the author, most recently, of Red Brick, Black Mountain, White Clay.
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 44 reviews
July 8, 2019
Christopher Benfey has written a masterful biography of Rudyard Kipling's years in the United States. It is a little-remembered period from the life of the youngest ever Nobel Prize winner for literature.
"At this remove, it is difficult to recover the sheer depth of reverence once accorded Kipling. "He's more of a Shakespeare than anyone yet in this generation of ours," wrote the great American psychologist William James."
He was friends with Mark Twain. One of Kipling's books, The Jungle Book, was in Sigmund Freud's top picks for important books in his life. He has inspired generations of authors and readers with his Just So Stories and poetry.
My husband used to quote some of his poetry to me from memory when we were first dating. Rudyard Kipling is a giant of literature.
Yet he's also a complex historical figure. "With the rise of postcolonial theory — a view of literature that assesses the human cost of colonial arrangements —Kipling is often treated with unease or hostility in university literature departments, as the jingoist Bard of Empire, a man on the wrong side of history."
And there's reasons for this distrust. Kipling penned "The White Man's Burden", asking the United States to take up Great Britain's colonial interests.
So when Benfey examines the life of Kipling, it's not all hero worship. He is aware of and acknowledges Kipling's failings, but doesn't take it out of the context of Kipling's life and times.
If brings to light previously unknown portions of Kipling's life and legacy. Some new poetry and personal papers have recently been discovered that Benfey uses to paint a more complete picture of Kipling than perhaps ever before.
Readers learn of the friendships Kipling had with some of the political giants in the United States. We also get to peek into Kipling's private life and share some of the intense sorrows he experienced in his own childhood and with his children.
There's an examination of how opium use affected Kipling's writings. We travel with Kipling to Japan on his honeymoon. And we learn about the great writer's obsession with, of all things, beavers.
This most interesting part of all of it is, though he lived in the Gilded Age, how similar Kipling's times were to today.
"It was an era, like our own, of vast disparities between rich and poor, of corruption on an appalling scale, of large-scale immigration and rampant racism, of disruptive new technologies and new media, of mushrooming factories and abandoned farms, of vanishing wildlife and the depredation of public lands."
So, despite his astonishing literary genius, Kipling was just a man. He had his flaws and his dark side. And after his death, he left behind a treasury of written works that carry his legacy into the unknowable future. A future that, if we try, perhaps we can make more than one man's limited imagination could contain.
Recommended for readers who enjoy forgotten history in all its imperfections and glory.
Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for a free digital advance reader's copy of this book. The brief quotations I cited in this review may change or even be omitted in the final version.
"At this remove, it is difficult to recover the sheer depth of reverence once accorded Kipling. "He's more of a Shakespeare than anyone yet in this generation of ours," wrote the great American psychologist William James."
He was friends with Mark Twain. One of Kipling's books, The Jungle Book, was in Sigmund Freud's top picks for important books in his life. He has inspired generations of authors and readers with his Just So Stories and poetry.
My husband used to quote some of his poetry to me from memory when we were first dating. Rudyard Kipling is a giant of literature.
Yet he's also a complex historical figure. "With the rise of postcolonial theory — a view of literature that assesses the human cost of colonial arrangements —Kipling is often treated with unease or hostility in university literature departments, as the jingoist Bard of Empire, a man on the wrong side of history."
And there's reasons for this distrust. Kipling penned "The White Man's Burden", asking the United States to take up Great Britain's colonial interests.
So when Benfey examines the life of Kipling, it's not all hero worship. He is aware of and acknowledges Kipling's failings, but doesn't take it out of the context of Kipling's life and times.
If brings to light previously unknown portions of Kipling's life and legacy. Some new poetry and personal papers have recently been discovered that Benfey uses to paint a more complete picture of Kipling than perhaps ever before.
Readers learn of the friendships Kipling had with some of the political giants in the United States. We also get to peek into Kipling's private life and share some of the intense sorrows he experienced in his own childhood and with his children.
There's an examination of how opium use affected Kipling's writings. We travel with Kipling to Japan on his honeymoon. And we learn about the great writer's obsession with, of all things, beavers.
This most interesting part of all of it is, though he lived in the Gilded Age, how similar Kipling's times were to today.
"It was an era, like our own, of vast disparities between rich and poor, of corruption on an appalling scale, of large-scale immigration and rampant racism, of disruptive new technologies and new media, of mushrooming factories and abandoned farms, of vanishing wildlife and the depredation of public lands."
So, despite his astonishing literary genius, Kipling was just a man. He had his flaws and his dark side. And after his death, he left behind a treasury of written works that carry his legacy into the unknowable future. A future that, if we try, perhaps we can make more than one man's limited imagination could contain.
Recommended for readers who enjoy forgotten history in all its imperfections and glory.
Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for a free digital advance reader's copy of this book. The brief quotations I cited in this review may change or even be omitted in the final version.
December 31, 2019
Rudyard Kipling has become rather persona non gratis in modern times due to his support of colonialism but oh my dear, he was talented. I was raised reading Kipling's work and although it is now politically incorrect, it was thrilling when one was a child in more innocent days. To be frank, I still find it thrilling since one has to remember when it was written.
This book relates the time that Kipling and his family lived in Brattleboro, Vermont at the end of the 19th century and how it affected his writing and thinking. He initially came to the US to interview Mark Twain for his column in a British India newspaper. Twain was one of his literary heroes and he fell in love with the wilderness of the country and decided to stay.
He wrote two of his masterpieces Kim and The Jungle Book at his isolated home in Vermont and was suddenly famous. He eventually returned to England after a political decision made by the US which involved Britain, soured him against the policies of the US.
Much of life of Kipling in the US is not well known and the author attempts to clarify some of the effect that Kipling had on US attitudes and literary tastes. I was rather disappointed at the uneven flow of the narrative and the author's sometimes apologetic tone when discussing Kipling's imperialism. Apologies are unnecessary since Kipling lived in other times when the sun never set on the British Empire and his loyalties, right or wrong, were the norm. His exciting and moving stories/poems are works of a brilliant and conflicted artist.
If you like Kipling, you may want to read this book......if not a fan, you may want to skip it.
This book relates the time that Kipling and his family lived in Brattleboro, Vermont at the end of the 19th century and how it affected his writing and thinking. He initially came to the US to interview Mark Twain for his column in a British India newspaper. Twain was one of his literary heroes and he fell in love with the wilderness of the country and decided to stay.
He wrote two of his masterpieces Kim and The Jungle Book at his isolated home in Vermont and was suddenly famous. He eventually returned to England after a political decision made by the US which involved Britain, soured him against the policies of the US.
Much of life of Kipling in the US is not well known and the author attempts to clarify some of the effect that Kipling had on US attitudes and literary tastes. I was rather disappointed at the uneven flow of the narrative and the author's sometimes apologetic tone when discussing Kipling's imperialism. Apologies are unnecessary since Kipling lived in other times when the sun never set on the British Empire and his loyalties, right or wrong, were the norm. His exciting and moving stories/poems are works of a brilliant and conflicted artist.
If you like Kipling, you may want to read this book......if not a fan, you may want to skip it.
May 22, 2019
I’m not entirely surprised to be the first person reviewing this book. The subject, after all, is fairly esoteric. Kipling is nowhere near as famous of an author as he should be, considering how popular and beloved his stories were and are. Just recently there’s been another (admittedly inferior) Jungle Book remake on Netflix. If, Kipling’s famous poem and the title of this book, is quite possibly the most widely quoted one at graduations, etc. At one time and for many years Kipling was the best selling most popular author there was, even becoming the youngest man to win Nobel Prize for literature and the first in English language. And yet…sadly, the man’s politically incorrect views and his outspokenness of them seem to have marred his reputation. So that Kipling is often thought of as an unpopular imperialist with a jingoistic streak instead of just someone whose books you might have had the pleasure to be brought up on. Sad indeed, this sign of times…the insistence of viewing people through the horridly inflexible self righteous prism of modern age instead of considering them as representatives of their times, social status, etc. At any rate, Kipling’s life isn’t very well known and this book aims to change that and triumphantly succeeds. The author presents a measured unbiased portrait of a man, whose life was fascinating and at times fraught with tragedy, whose views were strong and often unfashionable and whose talent was undeniable and prodigious. It has been said that Kipling was a modern Shakespeare of his time, in a way he added words and idioms to the English language. He hung out with luminaries of his day, traveled wildly, impressively so considering the times and led a storied and interesting life. Certainly one worth reading about. Though the author chooses to concentrate on Kipling’s American years, the book does a pretty good job of covering Kipling’s entire life, only skimping on the later years. His American years, really a decade in the late 1800s very significant because he was so happy and productive here, finding a place of his own for his new family and him in Brattleboro, Vermont. Politics eventually made him leave and personal tragedy saw to it that he never returned, but for a while he was very happy there, setting out a goal for himself to become a proper American author, to write the quintessential great American novel. Which, of course, he did. Or maybe even one upping that, writing great novels of international resonance. Some to delight children of all ages across the globe, some, oddly enough, to be used as spy manuals in military conflicts. The entire final chapter is devoted to the latter, which is sad in a way, because it isn’t the association someone who grew up on Jungle Book and Just So Tales might wish to have. Nevertheless, it’s certainly fascinating and definitely sobering to see the far reaching effects of literature on the world, intended or not. But then again, it works very well within the context of the book, because it doesn’t just describe one literary life, it talks about a variety of personal and professional connections, thus giving the readers a terrific view of a Gilded Age of America, where things that glittered weren’t always gold and times were as challenging and turbulent (racism, nationalism, immigration, to mention just a few) as they are today in a way, speaking to the cyclical nature of the world and people’s essential inability to learn from the past. So you won’t just learn of one man’s life, you’ll learn of many, you’ll learn about the life of a country on a brink of a new era. And for such a relatively slender volume, this book offers tons of information and does so in a thoroughly engaging, edifying, entertaining way. It’s all you can ask for from nonfiction. There are even photos. This was a fairly random selection for me and somewhat outside of my normal reading fare (I normally don’t do biographies), but now I’m very glad to have found and read this book. The author did a terrific job of enlightening the world on its subject, Kipling’s life was just as interesting as his books in a way, though nowhere near as exciting and no talking quadrupeds either. I learned a lot about Kipling and his times from this book and enjoyed it thoroughly. I practically read it on one or two prolonged sittings, which is pretty unputdownable for nonfiction. I can only hope my glowing review might help this book finds its audience. It certainly deserves one. Read this book. Read Kipling too. You (at least in spirit and at least in theory) can never be too old for an armchair adventure. Thanks Netgalley.
August 28, 2020
A very compelling biography of a great writer and, I think, a widely misunderstood figure in the current era. And a must-read for anyone who lives in or near Brattleboro, VT. Lots of fascinating new insights on both history and literature.
July 18, 2019
Marry me, Christopher Benfey! I adore your books. From The Great Wave to The Summer of Hummingbirds, you synthesize American culture and history into a perfectly delineated whole. And now - be still my heart - Rudyard Kipling during his American years. This is a triumph of a book, ranging as it does from Kipling's childhood years right up to the present day and the influence his works bore on Vietnam and subsequent imperial skirmishes.
July 19, 2019
According to the subtitle,”The untold story of Kipling’s American Years” one would assume that this is a history book. A quick peruse through the books pictures would lead one to believe there were great stories of RK and TR and Mark Twain. There aren’t. This book is basically a collection of book reviews trying to tie what Kipling wrote to the events in his life. Less than half the book takes place in the US. Historical content is tangential to the what the author is trying to accomplish. If I had known this, I probably wouldn’t have read it.
August 6, 2019
Excellent, short biography that gives a sense of Kipling's complicated place in literature, his uncontested talent and story-telling ability, and how, when we think we know him, we more often imperfectly understand his aims and his meaning.
August 9, 2019
Truly enjoyed this book about Rudyard Kipling's years in Vermont, USA. I learned about his formative meeting with his hero Mark Twain, his Arc-inspired house in Brattleboro, and his writing there of the Jungle Books, Captains Courageous and the Just So Stories, among others...Highly recommended...
July 25, 2019
There are threads laid out in this book that don’t fully develop...I would have liked a longer reflection on the Philippine-American War and a less hastily drawn conclusion that one day after the WMB was published, Congress voted to annex the Philippines. Also, how can you mention that Allen Dulles had a well thumbed copy of Kim at his death bed, and not elaborate on his ill begotten schemes abroad including the murder of Lumumba? I’m also surprised by the rosy depiction of President Cleveland.
July 25, 2019
Rudyard Kipling was a writer whose star rose suddenly, then fell slowly, his repute now in such doubt that award-winning writer Christopher Benfey was advised against trying to “rehabilitate” him. Fortunately, he did not heed that advice, and this fascinating biography is the result.
Living in India in what he thought of as rather idyllic circumstances, at age five Kipling was sent to England to be raised by a professional foster family. The shock cut deep. Kipling later spoke of it as a kind of imprisonment, forcing him to reveal nothing of his treatment lest he be punished, yet accepting it as children do, as what was required. Later, his stories of “lost boys” like Mowgli in THE JUNGLE BOOK (who was raised by wolves) and the hero of CAPTAINS COURAGEOUS (a rich boy forced to live like an ordinary sailor) recall this sense of alienation and determination. Both books were written while Kipling lived in the US, reflecting perhaps his sense of freedom to tell, finally, the truth about his upbringing.
Kipling came to the US with his wife, American Carrie Balestier, who he had married days after hearing of the death of her brother Wolcott, with whom he had composed THE NAULAHKA, a winding novel that melded imagery from India with a very American setting. Possibly, Kipling had been enamored of Wolcott, and courting his sister was the best expression of those feelings. He and Carrie were in the midst of a storybook honeymoon when they learned that his bank had collapsed. Financially desperate and with a baby on the way, they found a haven in Vermont, near Brattleboro, eventually building a stately home named for that first novel.
Benfey, the Andrew F. Mellon Professor of English at Mount Holyoke College with a particular focus on the American Gilded Age, has brought to light and deftly connected many lesser-known facts about Kipling, his contemporaries (including Teddy Roosevelt), and his secret longing to become a great American writer. Forced to leave the US after about 10 years, Kipling became an esteemed English literary voice, but the American links lingered. Interestingly, his novel KIM, conceived during his American sojourn, became required reading for CIA agents during the Vietnam War.
Though buried beside Tennyson and Chaucer, Kipling’s light dimmed in the new world era, with works like “The White Man’s Burden” making his name anathema. Yet, Benfey points out, his greatest stories are still the basis for popular remakes. And there is much to be discerned about the radical upheavals in current American culture from Kipling’s complex American engagement, which Benfey regards as “a quest for a lost paradise.”
Reviewed by Barbara Bamberger Scott
Living in India in what he thought of as rather idyllic circumstances, at age five Kipling was sent to England to be raised by a professional foster family. The shock cut deep. Kipling later spoke of it as a kind of imprisonment, forcing him to reveal nothing of his treatment lest he be punished, yet accepting it as children do, as what was required. Later, his stories of “lost boys” like Mowgli in THE JUNGLE BOOK (who was raised by wolves) and the hero of CAPTAINS COURAGEOUS (a rich boy forced to live like an ordinary sailor) recall this sense of alienation and determination. Both books were written while Kipling lived in the US, reflecting perhaps his sense of freedom to tell, finally, the truth about his upbringing.
Kipling came to the US with his wife, American Carrie Balestier, who he had married days after hearing of the death of her brother Wolcott, with whom he had composed THE NAULAHKA, a winding novel that melded imagery from India with a very American setting. Possibly, Kipling had been enamored of Wolcott, and courting his sister was the best expression of those feelings. He and Carrie were in the midst of a storybook honeymoon when they learned that his bank had collapsed. Financially desperate and with a baby on the way, they found a haven in Vermont, near Brattleboro, eventually building a stately home named for that first novel.
Benfey, the Andrew F. Mellon Professor of English at Mount Holyoke College with a particular focus on the American Gilded Age, has brought to light and deftly connected many lesser-known facts about Kipling, his contemporaries (including Teddy Roosevelt), and his secret longing to become a great American writer. Forced to leave the US after about 10 years, Kipling became an esteemed English literary voice, but the American links lingered. Interestingly, his novel KIM, conceived during his American sojourn, became required reading for CIA agents during the Vietnam War.
Though buried beside Tennyson and Chaucer, Kipling’s light dimmed in the new world era, with works like “The White Man’s Burden” making his name anathema. Yet, Benfey points out, his greatest stories are still the basis for popular remakes. And there is much to be discerned about the radical upheavals in current American culture from Kipling’s complex American engagement, which Benfey regards as “a quest for a lost paradise.”
Reviewed by Barbara Bamberger Scott
November 23, 2019
"If" is an interesting take on the writings of Rudyard Kipling. Written by an English professor at Mount Holyoke "If" reads like a series of lectures in an English major's elective course on the Writings of Kipling. And that's fine with me. Benfey points out that the author of such tales as "Kim" and many short stories and poems about India actually wrote many of his works in, of all places, Brattleboro, Vermont where he settled for a number of years looking for inspiration. But having influenced, and been influenced by such American friends as Teddy Roosevelt, John Hay, Henry James and Mark Twain, Kipling found a welcoming audience for his imperialistic views. Since then though, like Mark Twain Kipling has gone from being a literary icon a hundred years ago to an all but forgotten victim of the politically correct historical purge of the last decade. And that is unfortunate given Kipling's vast contribution to our English literary heritage. If you can think of a more quotable author than Kipling then you're a better man than I am. His influence on other writers of his generation disproves the statement that never the twain shall meet. And if you grew up as I did in an era where you are required to learn poems verbatim in school you can easily rattle off such lines as:
So I'll meet him later on in the place where he has gone,
Where it's always double drill and no canteen.
E'll be squatting on the coals, giving drink to poor damned souls,
And I'll get a swig in hell from Gunga Din
And you might have a tear in your eye because the final scene of Sam Jaffe saluting in the movie, 'Gunga Din" never fails to bring a lump to my throat. This was a splendid book and I hope it brings about a Kipling revival. Forget Kipling? As "If".
So I'll meet him later on in the place where he has gone,
Where it's always double drill and no canteen.
E'll be squatting on the coals, giving drink to poor damned souls,
And I'll get a swig in hell from Gunga Din
And you might have a tear in your eye because the final scene of Sam Jaffe saluting in the movie, 'Gunga Din" never fails to bring a lump to my throat. This was a splendid book and I hope it brings about a Kipling revival. Forget Kipling? As "If".
January 31, 2020
I was disappointed. I thought this was going to be a book with new information about Kiping in Vermont (where he lived and wrote much of his "Jungle Book"). Instead, I think this was a compilation of disjointed and somewhat interesting individual "lectures" on Kipling - replete with the author's own literary suspected allusions. (The final chapter on Kipling and the Viet Nam War - I kid you not - is an example.) Nevertheless, this book DID make me go out and re-read "Kim" and "The Jungle Book" and "The Just So Stories" which I had read and forgotten long ago. Kiping was the first English speaker to win the Nobel and towered over the literary world in the early 1900s. He deserves better than this work. Instead, read any of the excellent biographies of this literary giant.
July 14, 2019
Thoroughly enjoyable, entertaining and informative account of Kipling’s years in America, from about 1889-1899. Meticulously researched and written in a lively and accessible way, this is biography at its best. Essential reading for anyone interested in Kipling.
July 9, 2019
The author's painstaking research and attention to detail is obvious in the writing of this book. There were many facts that I only discovered after reading this!
October 30, 2019
Rudyard Kipling had a home in Vermont.
Rudyard Kipling had a home in Vermont?
Rudyard Kipling had a home in Vermont!
This may come as news to those of us who aren't Vermonters -- southern Vermonters, at that. Nevertheless, around the turn of the 20th century, the archetypal British author was hoping to write the Great American Novel. He built the home of his dreams outside of Brattleboro. There he wrote "Captains Courageous" and both "Jungle Books," among other works.
He dubbed his home Naulakha after the title of a book he wrote with dear friend Charles Wolcott Balestier. Today it has been lovingly restored by The Landmark Trust U.S.A, which leases it out as a guest house. It is not a museum (most of the furnishings are period pieces but not originals) and consequently it is not open to the public except for special events. We've stayed at the house (a step back in time). More recently, we attended one of those special events -- a presentation by Christopher Benfey of his recently published book.
Benfey, Andrew W. Mellon Professor of English at Mount Holyoke College in nearby South Hadley, Mass., specializes in American literature of the Gilded Age. Kipling, born in India of British parents, was eager during that period to join the likes of Mark Twain, Henry Wadsworth Longfellow, and Henry James. Benfey examines the letters and papers of Kipling and his contemporaries, and tells the story of the decade in which the author tried to fit in as a nouveau American -- and then abruptly abandoned the plan.
The story of Kipling's short years in Dummerston has been told and retold in Vermont, almost to the point of legend. This book extends beyond the seriocomic tale of conflict with the locals and the in-laws. Benfey could have gone into more detail about the legal case that caused Kipling to flee the country with his family, which makes for great comic drama. Instead, he concentrates on the less-known family tragedy that took place on the family's return to the U.S., which so traumatized Kipling that he could never bring himself to set foot in the country again.
Benfey's account puts Kipling's American years into broader historical and literary context, and still offers a compelling biographical sketch. Despite occasional lapses into academic analyses and stretches of sociological interpretation, the author delivers the general reader the story of a man rather than a literary criticism.
An example: Benfey devotes a chapter to Kipling's exploration of what he called the "fourth dimension," an unseen realm of the underworld where Kipling the newsman could pass unnoticed. This dimension was accessible only through the use of opium, which Kipling had experienced in his youth. The idea (sans drugs) comes back in Kipling's 1894 story "An Error in the Fourth Dimension," which he wrote during his Vermont years. It's the story of an American tycoon who expatriated to Britain, only to find himself a stranger to both cultures -- a mirror image of Kipling himself.
Fourth dimension? The geometrical concept of a fourth dimension was already well known by the 1880s, but it wasn't until 1895 -- the year after Kipling's story -- that H.G. Wells' "The Time Machine" popularized the idea of time as the fourth dimension.
This book takes its title from two Kipling poems that started with that single, two-letter word. The best known shares the title: "If." You've probably heard it:
If you can keep your head when all about you
Are losing theirs and blaming it on you ...
The other was in "Epitaphs of the War," written after his son's death in World War I:
If any question why we died,
Tell them, because our fathers lied.
Benfey's book begins with the first and ends with the second, which is ironically invoked in the context of the renewed interest in Kipling's works during the Vietnam War, which Benfey brings to light.
Kipling's reputation as a warrior poet may have dulled his luster after Vietnam. Likewise, his reputation still suffers "The White Man's Burden," written to encourage America to expand into the Pacific the way Britain had colonized Africa and India.
As a result, many today think of him as an imperialist and white supremacist. Benfey attempts, with mixed success, to put Kipling into historical context and demonstrate that his works and life show a man of truly international and intercultural understanding.
Rudyard Kipling had a home in Vermont?
Rudyard Kipling had a home in Vermont!
This may come as news to those of us who aren't Vermonters -- southern Vermonters, at that. Nevertheless, around the turn of the 20th century, the archetypal British author was hoping to write the Great American Novel. He built the home of his dreams outside of Brattleboro. There he wrote "Captains Courageous" and both "Jungle Books," among other works.
He dubbed his home Naulakha after the title of a book he wrote with dear friend Charles Wolcott Balestier. Today it has been lovingly restored by The Landmark Trust U.S.A, which leases it out as a guest house. It is not a museum (most of the furnishings are period pieces but not originals) and consequently it is not open to the public except for special events. We've stayed at the house (a step back in time). More recently, we attended one of those special events -- a presentation by Christopher Benfey of his recently published book.
Benfey, Andrew W. Mellon Professor of English at Mount Holyoke College in nearby South Hadley, Mass., specializes in American literature of the Gilded Age. Kipling, born in India of British parents, was eager during that period to join the likes of Mark Twain, Henry Wadsworth Longfellow, and Henry James. Benfey examines the letters and papers of Kipling and his contemporaries, and tells the story of the decade in which the author tried to fit in as a nouveau American -- and then abruptly abandoned the plan.
The story of Kipling's short years in Dummerston has been told and retold in Vermont, almost to the point of legend. This book extends beyond the seriocomic tale of conflict with the locals and the in-laws. Benfey could have gone into more detail about the legal case that caused Kipling to flee the country with his family, which makes for great comic drama. Instead, he concentrates on the less-known family tragedy that took place on the family's return to the U.S., which so traumatized Kipling that he could never bring himself to set foot in the country again.
Benfey's account puts Kipling's American years into broader historical and literary context, and still offers a compelling biographical sketch. Despite occasional lapses into academic analyses and stretches of sociological interpretation, the author delivers the general reader the story of a man rather than a literary criticism.
An example: Benfey devotes a chapter to Kipling's exploration of what he called the "fourth dimension," an unseen realm of the underworld where Kipling the newsman could pass unnoticed. This dimension was accessible only through the use of opium, which Kipling had experienced in his youth. The idea (sans drugs) comes back in Kipling's 1894 story "An Error in the Fourth Dimension," which he wrote during his Vermont years. It's the story of an American tycoon who expatriated to Britain, only to find himself a stranger to both cultures -- a mirror image of Kipling himself.
Fourth dimension? The geometrical concept of a fourth dimension was already well known by the 1880s, but it wasn't until 1895 -- the year after Kipling's story -- that H.G. Wells' "The Time Machine" popularized the idea of time as the fourth dimension.
This book takes its title from two Kipling poems that started with that single, two-letter word. The best known shares the title: "If." You've probably heard it:
If you can keep your head when all about you
Are losing theirs and blaming it on you ...
The other was in "Epitaphs of the War," written after his son's death in World War I:
If any question why we died,
Tell them, because our fathers lied.
Benfey's book begins with the first and ends with the second, which is ironically invoked in the context of the renewed interest in Kipling's works during the Vietnam War, which Benfey brings to light.
Kipling's reputation as a warrior poet may have dulled his luster after Vietnam. Likewise, his reputation still suffers "The White Man's Burden," written to encourage America to expand into the Pacific the way Britain had colonized Africa and India.
As a result, many today think of him as an imperialist and white supremacist. Benfey attempts, with mixed success, to put Kipling into historical context and demonstrate that his works and life show a man of truly international and intercultural understanding.
June 4, 2023
This was a thought-provoking take on Rudyard Kipling’s four years in Brattleboro, Vermont. Who knew? “There are only two places in the world where I want to live,” Kipling wrote, “Bombay and Brattleboro. And I can’t live in either.” I realize Kipling’s legacy has faded over the years due to the colonialism and racism in writings such as “White Man’s Burden.” No disputing Kipling is a powerful storyteller. Benfrey argues that Kipling retained a “deep sympathy for the despised, the marginalized, and the powerless.” I plan to read more on that topic.
As for Kipling’s American years, I couldn’t resist learning about his friendships with Mark Twain, William James, Henry Adams, and Theodore Roosevelt. I was surprised to learn that Kipling’s American years were his most productive; he wrote The Jungle Book and Captains Courageous while living along the Connecticut River, not the Ganges. I could picture him driving his carriage into town on a snowy evening, stopping for “a convivial chat with locals in the basement of the Brooks House on Main Street.”
Benfrey writes impressionistically about Kipling’s American experiences from 1889 to 1899. I like the way Benfrey weaves various Kipling stories and poems together with the Vermont countryside where he designed and built his dream house, the people who visited him, and even his high-minded opium use. There is a fascinating, if overlong, analysis of how Kipling’s words were misapplied during the Vietnam War (‘A Fool lies here who tried to hustle the East’) and a deep dive into Kipling’s focus on the beavers of Yellowstone. It all works. Sit back, relax, and let this story bounce around in your mind for a while.
As for Kipling’s American years, I couldn’t resist learning about his friendships with Mark Twain, William James, Henry Adams, and Theodore Roosevelt. I was surprised to learn that Kipling’s American years were his most productive; he wrote The Jungle Book and Captains Courageous while living along the Connecticut River, not the Ganges. I could picture him driving his carriage into town on a snowy evening, stopping for “a convivial chat with locals in the basement of the Brooks House on Main Street.”
Benfrey writes impressionistically about Kipling’s American experiences from 1889 to 1899. I like the way Benfrey weaves various Kipling stories and poems together with the Vermont countryside where he designed and built his dream house, the people who visited him, and even his high-minded opium use. There is a fascinating, if overlong, analysis of how Kipling’s words were misapplied during the Vietnam War (‘A Fool lies here who tried to hustle the East’) and a deep dive into Kipling’s focus on the beavers of Yellowstone. It all works. Sit back, relax, and let this story bounce around in your mind for a while.
February 6, 2021
An excellent book which does exactly what it sets out to do, namely provide an overview of Kipling's life and works focussed on his years in America and his American friendships. Kipling was very happy during his years in Brattleboro, Vermont, with his wife Caroline Balestier and their growing family. The home he built there was given the name "Naulakha" after a literary project he hatched with Caroline's brother Wolcott Balestier, who met an untimely death in Dresden in 1891. Kipling proposed to Carrie soon after that tragedy, which affected Henry James as badly as it did Kipling. The James brothers, Mark Twain, Henry Adams and Theodore Roosevelt were some of the more famous Americans Kipling befriended. Hailed as a genius in his early twenties, Kipling became and remains the youngest recipient of the Nobel Prize in Literature. Kipling was a freemason. His vast success was overshadowed by the death of his eldest daughter, Josephine, aged 8, and then off his son John, who was killed aged 17 at the outset of WWI. Kipling and his wife had to leave Naulakha as a result of a feud with another Balestier brother, Beatty, who was their close neighbor in Brattleboro and virtually forced them out of the place. Kipling's immense popularity meant that his words were often lifted out of context or misquoted, notably during the Vietnam War, which is the subject of Benfey's epilogue.
February 4, 2020
This was an enjoyable quick read about Kipling's life (not just his time in America, as the title suggests). I got it in advance of my first trip to Brattleboro, which was Kipling's American home. I learned that he is second only to Shakespeare in his influence on the English language itself: we have him to thank for expressions like "that's another story."
I was somewhat surprised to see the extent to which famous people of the late 1800's knew each other-- seems like Kipling was buddies with just about everyone, from Teddy Roosevelt to Mark Twain to Thomas Hardy (if I had a time machine, and could only use it for strictly observational studies, I would like to go back to the Smithsonian National Zoo in its first decade and eavesdrop on Roosevelt and Kipling talking about beavers. Kipling loved them and dreamed of reintroducing them to Vermont, where they had been extirpated).
I know that today Kipling is not considered PC and he is best-remembered for his imperialistic (=racist) writings, but I think this book helps to exonerate him a bit-- he was more progressive than many of his peers; in fact, he sharply criticized his friend Roosevelt's treatment of American Indians.
Last fun fact: the CIA used to require spies to read Kim as part of their official training!
I was somewhat surprised to see the extent to which famous people of the late 1800's knew each other-- seems like Kipling was buddies with just about everyone, from Teddy Roosevelt to Mark Twain to Thomas Hardy (if I had a time machine, and could only use it for strictly observational studies, I would like to go back to the Smithsonian National Zoo in its first decade and eavesdrop on Roosevelt and Kipling talking about beavers. Kipling loved them and dreamed of reintroducing them to Vermont, where they had been extirpated).
I know that today Kipling is not considered PC and he is best-remembered for his imperialistic (=racist) writings, but I think this book helps to exonerate him a bit-- he was more progressive than many of his peers; in fact, he sharply criticized his friend Roosevelt's treatment of American Indians.
Last fun fact: the CIA used to require spies to read Kim as part of their official training!
September 11, 2021
Benfey can be a bit precious in his deductions regarding Kipling’s sources. However, I learned a great deal about the author’s life and influence on American politics. Kipling was a man of his time, a British colonialist (anathema to us today)—yet life experience modified his views.
I read Kim twice just before picking up If, finding the language, setting, wisdom and sympathy with which Kipling portrayed the natives enthralling. So for me, Benfey’s Epilogue is the most interesting part of this book: a discussion of Kim’s importance to the CIA and training of its operatives for the Vietnam War as early as 1953.
Especially poignant now, after the pullout from our hopeless 20-year engagement in Afghanistan, August 31, 2021. Repetition of lessons not learned in Vietnam. “You can’t hustle the East.“
The present book ends with the final line of Kipling’s poem referring to his son’s death in WWI:
“We died because our fathers lied.”
Yes, history does repeat itself.
I read Kim twice just before picking up If, finding the language, setting, wisdom and sympathy with which Kipling portrayed the natives enthralling. So for me, Benfey’s Epilogue is the most interesting part of this book: a discussion of Kim’s importance to the CIA and training of its operatives for the Vietnam War as early as 1953.
Especially poignant now, after the pullout from our hopeless 20-year engagement in Afghanistan, August 31, 2021. Repetition of lessons not learned in Vietnam. “You can’t hustle the East.“
The present book ends with the final line of Kipling’s poem referring to his son’s death in WWI:
“We died because our fathers lied.”
Yes, history does repeat itself.
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May 30, 2025Christopher Benfey makes a strong case for both the influence that Kipling’s nearly ten-year stay in the United States had on his work and the ways Kipling’s work influenced U.S. society, all while not attempting to “rehabilitate” a writer who can be seen as racist and imperialist. After the childhood trauma of being sent from India to England, the adult Kipling would have been happy to settle in Brattleboro, Vermont with his family in the 1890s but was driven out by a dispute with his brother-in-law. Benfey provides an account of Kipling’s friendships with American writers and politicians and of the major works, including Kim, The Jungle Book and The Just-So Stories, and many familiar poems, that Kipling wrote or began while in Vermont. The Epilogue, focusing on many surprising references to Kipling associated with U.S. involvement in Vietnam, is especially convincing. It’s all very readable, with references identified in paragraphs at the end and an index.
June 6, 2024
I did not know that Rudyard Kipling lived in Vermont from 1889 to 1899, and it was during this time that he wrote two of his most famous novels, The Jungle Book and Captains Courageous. While living there, he was friends with the literary elite, including Mark Twain and Henry James. He was also buddies with Theodore Roosevelt. Kipling won the Nobel Prize in 1907, but his popularity plummeted in the 20th century, partly due to his imperialist beliefs. The author traces Kipling’s influence on other writers, having an impact on everything from Tarzan to Where the Wild Things Are to Star Wars. His poem “If” is one of the most quoted poems in the English language. The book includes a lot of literary analysis, which not everyone enjoys, but I found it very interesting.
October 21, 2019
I must admit to being rather underwhelmed by this book. It's perfectly well written, but I'm not sure I really get a sense of the real Rudyard Kipling in America. There are many vignettes, but I find the observations to be less than the sum of their parts, and I'm especially irritated by the few times when the author turns apologist (genius writer or not, Kipling's "The White Man's Burden" is just disgusting to modern sensibilities, no justification possible). There's just something lacking to this, and it ultimately feels like a mere blink-and-you'll-miss-it-tantalizer to some bigger, deeper work into the life and work of Kipling that has yet to be written.
October 25, 2019
This book is more academic than pleasure reading. The author implies that Kipling used opium. Kipling refers to this as being in the "Fourth Dimension." Kipling's wife was an American and they lived in Brattleboro, Vermont. Among Kipling's closest friends in the USA was some of the who's who of America' political and literary society. These included: Teddy Roosevelt, Grover Cleveland, Mark Twain, John Hays, Henry Adams, Henry Cabot Lodge and etc. Kipling spent a lot of time at the zoo studying the animals as he wrote Jungle Book and other stories. My favorite all time poem is "If".
June 8, 2020
Christopher Benfey’s IF recounts Rudyard Kipling’s residence in Vermont that gave rise to his most seminal work (cf Kim, the Jungle Book, Captain Courageous). Kipling while an unreconstructed imperialist understood from his time in India that colonial imperialism was also a fraught enterprise. His ties to Henry Adams, Mark Twain, Bret Harte, William and Henry James influenced him and them. Once considered among the most consequential English authors ( he won the Nobel prize) his star has faded with a revisionist view of the racism inherent in colonialism.
March 20, 2025
NYT Notable Books 2019: 62/100
I think the problem with Benfey's focus on Kipling's American years was that it was such a short snapshot of his life, it felt like there was very little context. Without really understanding how and why he got to America, and how his childhood impacted his writing, the book felt kind of empty. I appreciated the story that Benfey told, but it felt kind of like I was going in blind. Benfey's use of Kipling's works to illustrate his life in this time period was good, I just wish there was more to the book.
I think the problem with Benfey's focus on Kipling's American years was that it was such a short snapshot of his life, it felt like there was very little context. Without really understanding how and why he got to America, and how his childhood impacted his writing, the book felt kind of empty. I appreciated the story that Benfey told, but it felt kind of like I was going in blind. Benfey's use of Kipling's works to illustrate his life in this time period was good, I just wish there was more to the book.
October 28, 2019
Beautifully captured and read. I especially loved the descriptions that plunged me into the scene. Kipling was an amazing writer and his experiences and observations are pearls of wisdom to be dwelled upon and revisited. His words and thoughts are relatable for present day. The author draws me in with his ability to present Kipling the survivor and author while intertwining Kipling’s works and words. Beautiful and captivating.
November 26, 2019
Kipling is a very interesting man, who lived an equally interesting life. He was a family man, with children, two that died before him. He traveled extensively around the world but considered America and England his home territories. The accounts of his friendships with other notable writers, presidents, and others, were new to me. I found the book interesting, but I wouldn't read it again, so only 3 stars.
October 7, 2024
Not at all what the title suggests. Scattershot observations and hardly any detail about 'Kiplings American Years'. I did appreciate the insight Benfey offers about John Huston's film of "The Man Who Would be King," however. I was interested in reading about the luminaries of the time that Kipling crossed paths with, but Edmund Wilson's essay on Kipling in "The Wound and the Bow" is much more satisfying regarding Kiplings time in Brattleboro, Vermont than this book.
July 21, 2019
Author highlights his story of Kipling with paragraphs from Kipling's stories and poems. I was not familiar with Kipling (well, everyone knows the Jungle Book) .. The description of a Kipling story and what event , both personal and political, that Kipling based has writing on makes a very good read, He was a good friend of Theodore Roosevelt an interesting saga in itself.
October 19, 2019
Somewhat dry at times, but I did learn some interesting things, especially the connections between Kipling and his contemporaries, including Samuel Clemens, Henry James, and Theodore Roosevelt. The epilogue, “American Hustle,” connecting Vietnam War with Kipling’s writings, was also interesting. (Library)
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