The Jungle Book proofs come to Cambridge

The page proofs of Rudyard Kipling’s The Jungle Book – complete with the author’s handwritten poems – have been allocated to Cambridge University Library as part of HM Government’s Acceptance in Lieu scheme.

As well as multiple volumes of Kipling proofs, including Rewards and Fairies and Puck of Pook’s Hill, the collection of works from celebrated literary agent AP Watt also includes a remarkable array of manuscripts by once famed writers from the 1870s to the 1920s – the heyday of the popular English novel.

Kipling, whose views on colonialism and the Empire have led to a much more critical reinterpretation of his life and work in the 21^st century, was perhaps the most beloved British author of the late 19^th and early 20^th centuries, inspiring countless other writers (and later filmmakers).

In 1907, he became the first English-language writer to receive the Nobel Prize for Literature.

The spine of the proof copy of The Jungle Book by Rudyard Kipling. Photo: Blazej Mikula

Hand-drawn illustration and poetry from the proof copy of The Jungle Book. Photo: Blazej Mikula

Sir Chris Bryant, Arts Minister:

“The Jungle Book is a family classic that has spawned countless other works, including the famous Disney 1967 cartoon film and the 2016 film. Now that these proofs will be available at Cambridge University Library, I’m sure they will provide more than the bare necessities for academics, aspiring novelists and self-confessed book worms.

"Through the Acceptance in Lieu scheme, Cambridge University Library will have the opportunity to showcase and contextualise these works so that members of the public can be educated, inspired and entertained by them for years to come.”

The handwritten and heavily revised manuscript of Walter Besant's novel Katie, which forms part of the AP Watt allocation.

A note from author William Clark Russell, author of The Golden Hope, to his agent AP Watt, at the front of his manuscript version of the novel.

Cambridge University Library's manuscript copy of Kipling's famous poem If-. It was presented to the Library by Kipling himself.

The wider collection

As well as the Kipling material, the Watt collection also contains manuscripts by the likes of Sir Walter Besant, novelist, co-founder and Chairman of the Society of Authors. Included in the collection is the manuscript of one of his most significant novels, Katharine Regina, which dealt with impoverished working-class women, social problems and societal reform.

Just as intriguingly, the original manuscript of Sir Henry Rider Haggard’s Mr Meeson’s Will tells the tale of a destitute female novelist, a shipwreck, and the validity of a will tattooed on the novelist’s neck and shoulders. It was inspired by a well-known anecdote of the time.

The AP Watt material allocated to the University Library is regarded as being of preeminent importance, not only for its place in the history of late Victorian and Edwardian literature, but also in the history of the collecting of literary manuscripts.

The collection has come to the Library from the estate of the late Mrs Rosemary Watt with its contents all originally associated with the great Victorian literary agent A.P. Watt (1838-1914) and his son A.S. Watt (1870-1948).

The Watt collection also features the manuscripts of works by Bret Harte, best remembered for California Gold Rush tales featuring gamblers and miners; George MacDonald, whose work influenced JRR Tolkien and CS Lewis; and Four Feathers novelist Alfred Edward Woodley Mason, actor, adventurer and Liberal MP.

His French detective Inspector Hanaud was a precursor of Poirot and Mason served with British Naval Intelligence during the First World War.

Kipling at Cambridge

The Watt collection joins other Kipling material already at Cambridge University Library, including his corrected autograph manuscript of perhaps his most celebrated work, the poem ‘If—', which has regularly been voted as one of the UK’s favourite poems.

The manuscript was given to the library by the author himself in the 1920s.

John Wells, Senior Archivist:

“Taken together, the treasures found in the AP Watt collection are an exceptional accumulation of manuscripts and proofs of commercial prose from an era widely regarded as the heyday of the popular novel in this country.

“While Kipling’s legacy has been scrutinised more closely over recent years, there is little argument about his presence and place in the UK’s literary history or the enduring popularity of many of his works.

Detail from Kipling's proof copy of *The Jungle Book.* Photo: Blazej Mikula

Detail from Kipling's proof copy of *The Jungle Book.* Photo: Blazej Mikula

“The inclusion of the annotated proof of Kipling’s Rewards and Fairies (1910) is of special interest to the library, since in 1926 we received a donation from Kipling of the autograph manuscript of this book. The manuscript includes Kipling’s instructions to the printers, so we assume it to be the copy supplied to the printers for setting the proofs.

“The proofs in the Watt collection bear Kipling’s manuscript corrections, and together, the two items represent the interchange of texts between author and printers that resulted in the published volume.

“It’s wonderful to have the manuscript and the corrected proof reunited now in the same repository after a century apart.”

The page and press proofs of the Kipling material allocated to Cambridge University Library. Photo: Blazej Mikula

The Jungle Book page proofs. Photo: Blazej Mikula

Wilkie Collins & Pembroke College

Meanwhile, Pembroke College, Cambridge, has been allocated under AIL the travelling writing desk and contents which belonged to The Moonstone author Wilkie Collins. The desk also belonged to the archive of material from the AP Watt collection.

Collins’ desk is identical in design to the one used by his friend Charles Dickens and dates from the mid-nineteenth century.

Collins is known to have taken it travelling with him abroad, including his trip to the USA in 1873 and the desk contains his last diary, including entries in the hand of his amanuensis (literary assistant) Harriet Bartley recording his passing. The Pembroke collection also includes letters from Bartley to AP Watt recording his purchase of the desk from her.

Wilkie Collins' travelling writing desk, pictured before going on display at Cambridge University Library as part of the *Murder by the Book* crime fiction exhibition.

Wilkie Collins' travelling writing desk.

Dr Mark Wormald, English Fellow at Pembroke, said: “Collins’ desk transports us back to the place and moment of writing, reminds us that it moved with the writer, and hints at the daily rhythms of a novelist’s life and work as well as his impact on those closest to him.

A page opening of Collins' diary, which was kept inside his writing desk.

A page opening of Collins' diary, which was kept inside his writing desk.

“Given Collins’s foundational contribution to detective fiction and the sensation novel, it’s tempting to think of his desk as the scene of the crime. Its effect on the scholars, students and readers lucky enough to encounter it is immediate and inspiring.”

Portrait of Rudyard Kipling from the biography Rudyard Kipling by John Palmer.

A typed insert from The Jungle Book proof showing Kipling's late corrections and changes. Photo: Blazej Mikula

Page detail from the proof version of The Five Nations showing late changes to the text. Photo: Blazej Mikula

Nick Watt, AP Watt's grandson:

“The Watt family are delighted that the AP Watt Collection will now remain in the UK, freely accessible for research into the contribution made by our great-great grandfather and great grandfather to the literary world of the late 19th and early 20th centuries.

“We are similarly delighted that the Wilkie Collins writing desk will be joining the collection of AP Watt/Wilkie Collins correspondence that the family had previously donated to Pembroke College.”

Michael Clarke CBE, Chair, Acceptance in Lieu Panel:

“These allocations are highly important for the study of our literary history. I am delighted that the AP Watt collection of authors’ manuscripts and proofs has been allocated to Cambridge University Library.

“Watt was the first true literary agent and his firm, established in 1875, numbered among its clients such distinguished authors as Joseph Conrad, Charles Dickens, Thomas Hardy and, of course Rudyard Kipling, whose manuscript and proofs of The Jungle Book are included in this collection.

“The novelist Wilkie Collins, best known as the author of The Woman in White, was a close friend and admirer of Charles Dickens. Collins’ travelling desk, an exact copy of that owned by Dickens, has been assigned to Pembroke College, Cambridge, where it will complement the three bound volumes of his letters to Watt already in the College’s collection.

“I hope that these allocations, both made through the Acceptance in Lieu Scheme, will encourage others to use the Scheme and to continue to support our national collections.”