The Write Life

Exploring Rudyard Kipling's Naulakha

Hey Readers!

In this month’s, The Write Life, I’m excited to share my experience last June at Nobel Prize winning author, Rudyard Kipling’s majestic house, Naulakha.

Kipling’s Naulakha, located in Dummerston, Vermont, just down the street from Brattleboro, is currently owned by The Landmark Trust. The home is only available for daily visitor tours once a year— for the Rhododendron Tour, which I attended.

But don’t worry – if you can’t make the yearly tour, this house IS available to rent for your next writer’s retreat where you can sit and write at Kipling’s desk where he penned favorites such as The Jungle Book, Captains Courageous and portions of the Just So Stories.

This tour was by far my favorite so far. The house, nestled on top of a hill overlooking Vermont, is quite unique as it was built to resemble a ship. Kipling himself said he wanted the home to resemble a ship “sailing across the Vermont countryside.” Built in 1892, Kipling was unfortunately forced to abandon Naulakha in 1896 due to a family dispute. Kipling once wrote, “There are only two places in the world where I want to live, Bombay and Brattleboro. And I can’t live in either.”

Here are some fun Kipling facts and experiences I had while visiting this unique historic writer’s home.

1. Rudyard Kipling was born in Bombay, India, however, he spent much of his life in England.

2. Kipling and his American-born wife, Caroline, with their daughter, Josephine moved into Naulakha in the summer of 1893 and remained there for three full years.

3. The name, “Naulakha” is Hindi for “priceless jewel.” The house is three stories, plus a basement. Here are some pictures of Kipling’s bedroom, game room, his bathtub, and hallways.  

4. The years at Naulakha were highly productive for Kipling as he wrote from 9 to 12 each day, finishing penned favorites such as The Jungle Book. I find it interesting that he wrote The Jungle Book in the snowy Green Mountains of Vermont!  

5. In Kipling’s autobiography, Something of Myself, Kipling described Naulakha as “[n]inety feet was the length of it and thirty the width, on a high foundation of solid mortared rocks which gave us an airy and a skunk-proof basement. The rest was wood, shingled, roof and sides, with dull green hand-split shingles, and the windows were lavish and wide.”

6. Much of Kipling’s original furniture and books remain in the home. Of course, I was all over checking out his bookshelf and desk in his study! This is where he wrote!! Here are some pics of me in his study last June, Kipling in his study when he lived here, and some various items around the house.

7. His wife, Caroline, kept a diary that eventually ran 13,000 pages! On the 31rst of December each year, she’d ask her husband to pen a remark that summed up the prior 12 months. On December 31, 1894, he wrote, “Carrie tots up the books and finds that I have this year earned $25,000 . . . Not that mine be the praise; Carrie deserves it all.”  He was a man that appreciated his wife! Here’s a picture of her desk.

8. Kipling always kept his faith strong, often also praising God in his yearly writing in his wife’s diary.

9. Kipling left Vermont after a court case with his brother-in-law. There seem to be several versions of this story pieced together by different writers. Kipling himself, however, does not even mention the hearing or his brother-in-law in his autobiography or his letters. Since Kipling didn’t focus on it, neither will we, however, if you want to ‘spill the tea’ it seems his brother-in-law’s failure to give an accounting showing the larger sums of money he had spent on Naulakha was the main reason for the dispute.

10. At one point, so many fans started showing up to see Kipling’s house that a tower was built across the street by onlookers who would pay to stare across the road in hopes of seeing Kipling out on his deck. Kipling was not a fan, as he wrote:

“. . . You Americans are too fond of collecting things. For instance, I went to a reception one night in Boston, and I wore a new dress-suit, and, by Jovel when I got home and took my coat off, I found that the tails had been cut off-I presume by souvenir hunters! Every mail brought countless requests for locks of my hair; and every week, when my laundry came back, there were at least a dozen things of one kind or another missing . . . however, I never murmured until one day I observed a gang of carpenters at work on the other side of the street, putting up a curious-looking structure . . . I learned a circus manager secured a lease for the place for the summer, and was erecting a grandstand for people who came to catch a glimpse of me . . . It was then that the thread of my patience snapped.”

It wasn’t long after Kipling left Vermont.

Overall, this was an amazing experience. The house itself is majestic, and the Rhododendron tour (Note: the Rhododendrons were NOT there when Kipling lived there!) was also gorgeous.

I hope to one day have my own writing retreat at this fabulous location.

Till Next Time,

Sarah

AKA A Busy Lady

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