KIPLING AS CRAFTSMAN

Otago Daily Times, Issue 23354, 20 November 1937, Page 4

KIPLING AS CRAFTSMAN

EXPOSITION BY AN ADMIRER •• Rudyard Kipling: Craftsman ” By Sir George MacMunn, K.C.8., K.C.5.1., D.S.O, London: Hale. 17s. Sir George MacMunn is an official of the Kipling Society, which aims ,t° do honour to, and to extend the influence of a Writer, in our time the most patriotic, virile, and imaginative in upholding the ideals of the Englishspeaking world.” With disrespect neither to a great lover of Kipling nor to a writer of genius, it may be suggested that both the aims of the society and of the author of this book are somewhat out of step with the modern philosophies of Empire and

of letters. Sir George MacMunn’s book is quite uncritical. He finds himself sometimes in the role of apologist, in which he is not at his best, but usually he confines himself enthusiastically to expounding the works of Kipling. For this task he has many qualifications. He is versed in everything Kipling wrote —including unpublished writings from which, excerpts are given—and he knows India at least as well as his master. In a section on “ Kipling Origins” he is able to give an account of the originals of some famous Kipling personalities, including Kim. One interesting feature of his examination is the revelation that Kipling’s work is permeated with references to Freemasonry, both of the West and the East. He suggests that members of the craft may derive an additional esoteric pleasure from their Kipling in seeking out the allusions, which he is prevented from revealing. His book contains much information for Kipling students, though they may find its tone intemperate, but it will bring most pleasure to those who can subscribe to the author’s view that “ the whole Kipling story is the greatest phenomenon that has occurred in literature, and though by no means baffling, for we realise easily the cause thereof, yet it remains, as it must for all time, a phenomenon simple to follow, easy to evaluate, impossible to account for, save as genius wholly innate, welling from a source entirely within and proceeding.”. McG.