海角大神

海角大神 / Text

Rudyard Kipling loved Vermont. Then he had to leave it.

Christopher Benfey鈥檚聽鈥業f鈥 takes a closer look at the writer鈥檚 time in America 鈥 a key creative period when he wrote 鈥楾he Jungle Book.鈥

By Danny Heitman, Correspondent

Christopher Benfey鈥檚 鈥淚f: The Untold Story of Kipling鈥檚 American Years鈥 draws its title from Rudyard Kipling鈥檚 most famous poem, which Benfey aptly describes as a 鈥渇avorite of presidents and graduation speakers, of political conservatives and revolutionaries alike.鈥澛營f none of this rings a bell, then the opening stanza probably will:

If you can keep your head when all about you聽聽聽

聽聽聽聽Are losing theirs and blaming it on you,聽聽聽

If you can trust yourself when all men doubt you,

聽聽聽聽But make allowance for their doubting too;聽聽聽

If you can wait and not be tired by waiting,

聽聽聽聽Or being lied about, don鈥檛 deal in lies,

Or being hated, don鈥檛 give way to hating,

聽聽聽聽And yet don鈥檛 look too good, nor talk too wise...

Three stanzas later the poem concludes with what awaits the diligent soul who can navigate all those 鈥渋fs鈥:聽

Yours is the Earth and everything that鈥檚 in it,聽聽聽

聽聽聽聽And 鈥 which is more 鈥 you鈥檒l be a Man, my son!

Kipling鈥檚 poem seems to reflect the basic virtues that informed Kipling鈥檚 life and work as a Victorian Englishman. Born in colonial India to English parents in 1865, Kipling spent his early childhood there before going to England, the country where he died in 1936. India informed iconic Kipling works such as his 鈥淛ungle Books,鈥 the children鈥檚 stories adapted into a blockbuster movie franchise.

But as Benfey points out, despite the celebrated author鈥檚 British pedigree, Kipling鈥檚 鈥淚f鈥斺 was meant as a homage to George Washington. Like much of his work, it was inspired by America, where Kipling spent some of the most creative years of his life. Benfey tells this little-known story of Kipling鈥檚 handful of years in Brattleboro, Vermont, an interlude he calls 鈥渢he key creative period in his entire career.鈥 (Although they were about India, the 鈥淛ungle Books鈥 were written in Vermont.)聽

Benfey is shrewd to begin his story with 鈥淚f鈥,鈥 the Kipling poem a lot of readers can warm their hands around. One of my fondest memories of the poem is hearing it read aloud by the daughter of a friend at his funeral 鈥 her way of honoring the many times her father had read it to her.

That interpretation of Kipling鈥檚 homiletic verse required her to overlook its gender-specific language, which is directed exclusively to boys who want to be men. Its tacit assumption seems to be that the highest human virtues are manly ones.

Benfey is deeply aware of such challenges with Kipling, who can sound contemporary in some ways, but dated in others. Nowhere is this more true than in Kipling鈥檚 embrace of imperialism and racial hierarchy in 鈥淭he White Man鈥檚 Burden: The United States and the Philippine Islands,鈥 an 1899 poem in which he paternalistically refers to colonized people of color as 鈥測our new-caught, sullen peoples.鈥 What Benfey calls the 鈥渦nashamedly racist鈥 title of 鈥淭he White Man鈥檚 Burden鈥 and its dehumanizing view of nonwhites is an obvious example of why Kipling鈥檚 literary legacy is so controversial today. Benfey recalls that a friend warned him that writing a book about Kipling could be career suicide, since he might be tarnished by association.

But as Benfey makes clear, he鈥檚 not writing in defense of Kipling鈥檚 cultural attitudes, but to explore his place in history. Although Kipling was a global celebrity, the Nobel Prize-winning author was intimately connected with the United States. 鈥淭he White Man鈥檚 Burden,鈥 in fact, was not meant as a hymn to the British Empire, but the emerging American one. Kipling, who had married an American woman and lived in Vermont, wrote the poem as 鈥渁n explicit plea for the United States to adopt the Philippines as an American colony.鈥

Kipling was, for much of his life, a cheerleader of American culture and influence, embracing Ralph Waldo Emerson, Walt Whitman, and Henry Wadsworth Longfellow as early role models. He adored Mark Twain, too, and Benfey鈥檚 book begins with an account of young Kipling鈥檚 pilgrimage to Elmira, New York, to meet his idol.

Although the men quickly became friends, Twain was skeptical of his country鈥檚 imperial ambitions, a difference with Kipling that complicated their relationship.

Ultimately, other political questions dampened Kipling鈥檚 attitude toward America. In 1895, an obscure dispute between the United States and England over their interests in South America forced Kipling to choose sides, and he chose Britain. A scandalous falling-out with his troubled American brother-in-law further complicated his life in the States. In 1896, he relocated to England.

Benfey also poses the title of 鈥淚f鈥 as shorthand for 鈥渨hat if?鈥 He asks us to consider how Kipling, whose love of reinvention had drawn him to America, might have evolved if he had stayed there. A closer reading of Kipling shows a degree of doubt about the merits of expansionist foreign policy, and more nuanced views about the implications of colonial rule.

鈥溾楾here are only two places in the world where I want to live, Bombay and Brattleboro,鈥欌 he said when he left New England. 鈥淎nd I can鈥檛 live in either.鈥澛