The poems are arranged in chronological order, based on the date of their first publication rather than their date of composition which, as already mentioned, is often difficult to establish. On the few occasions where I have felt it sensible slightly to alter the chronology or where there is doubt about what exactly constitutes a poem’s first publication, details are given in the Notes.

I have used the Definitive Edition as my basic text, though I have also taken into account Kipling’s later revisions for the Sussex. As far as the poems in this selection are concerned, those revisions were largely a matter of modernizing punctuation and standardizing certain usages which were always of importance to Kipling, notably the use and misuse of aspirates and his idiosyncratic addiction to capital letters. Changes such as these have been incorporated silently in the text. The dates Kipling appended to poems have often been rendered unnecessary by the chronological nature of the present edition, but where I have felt that the date is, or has become, part of the poem, then it has been retained. The occasional footnotes, presumably by Kipling, which have long been familiar to readers of the Definitive Edition have been transferred to the Notes.

Table of Dates

1865

30 December, Joseph Rudyard Kipling born in Bombay, the son of John Lockwood Kipling (Professor of Architectural Sculpture at the School of Art, Bombay) and Alice Kipling (née Macdonald).

1868

Kipling’s sister ‘Trix’ born.

1871

The two children taken to England to be looked after by Mrs Holloway in what Kipling later called the ‘House of Desolation’, Southsea.

1875

Kipling’s parents move to Lahore, where his father becomes the director of the School of Art and Curator of the Lahore Museum.

1877

Alice Kipling returns to England and removes the children from Mrs Holloway.

1878

Starts school at the United Services College, Westward Ho!, Devon. June, goes with his father to the Paris Exhibition.

1880

Meets ‘Flo’ Garrard, to whom he later becomes engaged.

1881

Edits the college magazine. Schoolboy Lyrics published by his parents in Lahore.

1882

Joins his parents in Lahore. Begins work as assistant editor on the Civil and Military Gazette.

1883

Trix joins the family in Lahore.

1884

Engagement to Flo Garrard broken off. Echoes, a collection of verse parodies by Kipling and Trix.

1885

Quartette, a Christmas annual by all four members of the family.

1886

Joins Masonic Lodge, Lahore. Departmental Ditties.

1887

Moves to Allahabad to work on the Pioneer newspaper.

1888

Plain Tales from the Hills, Soldiers Three, The Story of the Gadsbys, and other volumes in the ‘Indian Railway Library’ series.

1889

March, leaves India to return to England; travels via Burma, Singapore, Hong Kong, Japan, and the United States; travel sketches ‘From Sea to Sea’. October, arrives in England; lives in London. Meets Wolcott Balestier, American publisher and literary agent, with whom he forms a close friendship.

1890

Soldiers Three and other Indian stories published in England.

1891

The Light That Failed, Life’s Handicap. Visits South Africa, Australia, New Zealand, and India for the last time. December, sudden death of Wolcott Balestier.

1892

January, marries Balestier’s sister Caroline (‘Carrie’); honeymoon tour of America, Canada, Japan. Barrack-Room Ballads. The Naulahka, which Kipling had written in collaboration with Wolcott Balestier. Moves to Brattleboro, Vermont. December, birth of a daughter, Josephine.

1893

Many Inventions.

1894

The Jungle Book.

1895

The Second Jungle Book.

1896

 Birth of second daughter, Elsie. Bitter quarrel with his brother-in-law. The family returns to England; lives for short while in Devon. The Seven Seas.

1897

Birth of a son, John. The family moves to Rottingdean, Sussex. Captains Courageous.

1898

Visits South Africa; becomes friendly with Cecil Rhodes. Attends naval manoeuvres with the Channel Fleet. A Fleet in Being, The Day’s Work.

1899

January, on a visit to New York Kipling and his two daughters fall seriously ill. Kipling and Elsie recover, Josephine dies. From Sea to Sea, Stalky & Co.

1900

January to April, in South Africa during the Boer War; helps to establish a paper, The Friend, for the troops.

1901

Kim.

1902

The family moves to Bateman’s, Burwash, Sussex. Just So Stories.

1903

The Five Nations.

1904

Traffics and Discoveries.

1906

Puck of Pook’s Hill.

1907

Visits Canada, described in newspaper articles ‘Letters to the Family’. Awarded Nobel Prize for Literature.

1909

Actions and Reactions.

1910

Death of his mother.