Sandra KempCambridge University Press, 6/1/2009EAN 9780521111751, ISBN10: 0521111757Paperback, 244 pages, 22.9 x 15.2 x 1.4 cmLanguage: EnglishUnlike his contemporaries Virginia Woolf and Henry James, Kipling always denied he was a critic. But his letters, speeches, and stories are full of comments on writing and writers. This collection, including many formerly unpublished private letters and papers, details Kipling's response to the commercialisation of literature and the emerging role of the writer as celebrity in the turbulent literary world of the 1890s and beyond. They reveal a mind intensely concerned with questions of literary value, with language and imagination, with truth, realism, and romanticism. Kipling's fame made him a significant spokesperson for important segments of the reading public - the soldiers, engineers, and functionaries central to Britain's imperial expansion. He profoundly influenced English literary language and our perception of English national character. This book offers access to the private and public history of a writer whose continuing influence is still a matter of fierce controversy.1. Portrait of the artist as a young man2. Aesthetics3. How to writeingredients and methods4. History and contemporary culture5. The commerce of literature6. The writer and his critics7. AfterwordNotesIndex.
