If

The Untold Story of Kipling's American Years

By: Christopher Benfey

Narrated by: Joshua Kane

Length: 7 hrs and 27 mins

Publisher's summary

A New York Times Notable Book of 2019

A unique exploration of the life and work of Rudyard Kipling in Gilded Age America, from a celebrated scholar of American literature

At the turn of the 20th century, Rudyard Kipling towered over not just English literature, but the entire literary world. At the height of his fame in 1907, he was awarded the Nobel Prize for Literature, becoming its youngest winner. His influence on major figures - including Freud and William James - was pervasive and profound. But in recent decades Kipling’s reputation has suffered a strange eclipse. Though his body of work still looms large, and his monumental poem “If” is quoted and referenced by politicians, athletes, and ordinary readers/listeners alike, his unabashed imperialist views have come under increased scrutiny.

In If, scholar Christopher Benfey brings this fascinating and complex writer to life, and, for the first time, gives full attention to Kipling's intense engagement with the United States - a rarely discussed but critical piece of evidence in our understanding of this man and his enduring legacy. Benfey traces the writer’s deep involvement with America over one crucial decade, from 1889 to 1899, when he lived for four years in Brattleboro, Vermont, and sought deliberately to turn himself into a specifically American writer. It was his most prodigious and creative period, as well as his happiest, during which he wrote The Jungle Book and Captains Courageous. Had a family dispute not forced his departure, Kipling almost certainly would have stayed. Leaving was the hardest thing he ever had to do, Kipling said. “There are only two places in the world where I want to live,” he lamented, “Bombay and Brattleboro. And I can’t live in either.”

In this fresh examination of Kipling, Benfey hangs a provocative “what if” over Kipling’s American years and maps the imprint Kipling left on his adopted country, as well as the imprint the country left on him. If proves there is relevance and magnificence to be found in Kipling’s work.

©2019 Christopher Benfey (P)2019 Penguin Audio

Critic reviews

“This biography will urge those unfamiliar with Kipling’s works (e.g., If, Kim, The Jungle Book) to read the classics that solidified his reputation here and abroad, earning him the Nobel Prize in Literature in 1901. Highly recommended.” (Library Journal)

“Intelligent and well-researched.... An accessible and enlightening biography.” (Kirkus Reviews)

“Christopher Benfey’s wise and spirited If arrives at just the right moment. His canny account of Rudyard Kipling’s years in America - when, surprisingly, this exemplar of British empire wrote or conceived his best remembered works - and of Kipling’s long-lasting impact on American political and cultural life resonates powerfully in our vexed and virulent present. Whether or not you grew up on Kim and The Jungle Book, Benfey skillfully proves in this essential study of imperial influence through the written word, you are living in their long shadow.” (Megan Marshall, Pulitzer Prize-winning author of Margaret Fuller: A New American Life and Elizabeth Bishop: A Miracle for Breakfast)

PRINT IS TOO DIM for n this “headline” box and in the “review” box below.

I accidentally gave the performance one and a half stars too many. There were a few mispronunciations.
You should also have a way to give half-stars.

Chris Benfey’s ‘IF’ A MUST AUDIOBOOK

It’s continuity was prolifically whatever that means.
Of course ‘that’ is a pronoun. How about changing to
Profound. I ask your editor to correct my errors.
Bye for now Glen ;-)