From Sea to Sea and Other Sketches
Letters of Travel

The 1928 edition of an 1899 essay collection that vividly describes Kipling's 1887–9 travels in Asia and the USA.

Rudyard Kipling (Author)

9781108033695, Cambridge University Press

Paperback / softback, published 21 July 2011

456 pages
21.6 x 14 x 2.5 cm, 0.58 kg

First published in book form in 1899, and reissued here in the 1928 Macmillan edition, this two-volume collection contains a series of letters and travel reports originally written for newspapers by the young Rudyard Kipling (1865–1936) on his journeys around India, Burma, China, Japan and the United States between 1887 and 1889. The 1907 Nobel Prize winner's characteristic fluid writing style is already apparent in these funny, poignant and vivid articles and short stories. Providing revealing insights into Kipling's notions of imperialism and Englishness, the works also reflect the writer's keen observational powers, and a telling intelligent self-awareness of his own cultural prejudices. Volume 2 contains the remainder of From Sea to Sea, covering the American west coast, Salt Lake City and Chicago, and describing an encounter with Mark Twain as 'a moment to be remembered.' This is followed by several short stories including The City of Dreadful Night.

From Sea to Sea continued: 25. Tells how I dropped into politics and the tenderer sentiments
26. Takes me through Bret Harte's country, and to Portland with 'Old Man California'
27. Shows how I caught salmon in the Clackamas
28. Takes me from Vancouver to the Yellowstone National Park
29. Shows how Yankee Jim introduced me to Diana of the Crossways on the Banks of the Yellowstone and how a German Jew said I was no true citizen
30. Shows how I entered Mazanderan of the Persian and saw devils of every colour, and some trooper
31. Ends with the Cañon of the Yellowstone
32. Of the American army and the City of the Saints
33. How I met certain people of importance between Salt Lake and Omaha
34. Across the Great Divide, and how the Man Gring showed me the garments of the Ellewomen
35. How I struck Chicago, and how Chicago struck me
36. How I found peace at Musquash on the Monongahela
37. An interview with Mark Twain
The City of Dreadful Night: 1. A real live city
2. The reflections of a savage
3. The council of the gods
4. On the banks of the Hughli
5. With the Calcutta Police
6. The city of Dreadful Night
7. Deeper and deeper still
8. Concerning Lucia
Among the Railway Folk: 1. A railway settlement
2. The shops
3. Vulcan's Forge
The Giridih Coal-Fields: 1. On the surface
2. In the depths
3. The perils of the pits
In an Opium Factory
The Smith Administration: The cow-house jirga
A bazar dhulip
The hands of justice
The Serai Cabal
The story of a king
The great census
The killing of Hatim Tai
A self-made man
The vengeance of Lal Beg
Hunting a miracle
The explanation of Mir Baksh
A letter from Golam Singh
The writing of Yakub Khan
A king's ashes
The bride's progress
A district at play
What it comes to
The opinions of Gunner Barnabas.

Subject Areas: Social & cultural history [HBTB]