A Book of Words

Angus Wilson(p. 255) comments:

... one of the paradoxes about Kipling is that for a man who disliked public appearances and speaking, he put some of his most deeply personal and revealing statements into his speeches. As a result, A Book of Words, that incorporates them, makes splendid reading. His

speech to McGill Universityis no exception. It is his most direct and fierce attack upon materialism.
The Title Page

The collection carries this heading:

To Demeter the Winnower Heronax dedicates these.
And if there be any of them serviceable to a
wayfarer, let him share.

Demeter was the earth goddess of the Greeks, equivalent to Ceres in Roman mythology. This is an adaptation by Kipling of a dedicatory epigram by Diodoros Zonas (perhaps born 125 BC) in the Greek Anthology(VI.98), translated by William Roger Paton (1857-1921) and published by William Heinemann in the Loeb Classical Library. Kipling has taken the name of ‘Heronax’ to refer to himself as writer:

To Demeter the Winnower and the Seasons that tread in the furrows
Heronax from his scanty tilth offers a portion of the corn from his threshing-floor
and these various vegetables on a wooden tripod – very little from a small store;
for he owns but this little glebe on the barren hill-side.

The Speeches

(click on the number
for the text of the speech)I

III

VII

VIII

XII

XIII

XIV

XVI

XVII

XVIII

XIX

XXI

XXII

XXIII

XXIV

XXV

XXVI

XXVII

XXVIII

XXIX

XXX

XXXI

XXXII

XXXIII

XXXIV

XXXV

XXXVI

XXXVII

FULL TEXT				NOTES

	Literature	Royal Academy Dinner	5 May 1906
	The Claims of Art	Artists' General Benevolent Institution:	9 May 1907
	Values in Life	McGill University, Montreal:	12 Oct 1907
	Imperial Relations	Canadian Club, Toronto:	18 Oct 1907
	Growth and Responsibility	Canadian Club, Winnipeg:	2 Oct 1907
	The Handicap of Letters	Royal Literary Fund:	21 May 1908
	A Doctor's Work	Middlesex Hospital:	1 Oct 1908
	The Spirit of the Navy	A Naval Club:	21 Oct 1908
	The Ritual of Government	Brighton, Mayor's Inaugural Dinner	9 Nov 1910
	The Verdict of Equals	Royal Geographical Society:	May 1912
	The Uses of Reading	Wellington College:	25 May 1912
	Some Aspects of Travel	Royal Geographical Society:	Feb 1914
	The War and the Schools	Winchester College:	Dec 1915
	The Magic Square	Household Brigade O.C.C., Bushey:	1917
	The First Sailor	East Coast Patrol:	1918
	England and the English	Royal Society of St. George:	April 1920
	The Scot and the War	Edinburgh University:	July 1920
	The Virtue of France	Sorbonne, Paris:	Nov 1921
	A Thesis	Banquet at the Sorbonne	Nov 1921
	A Return to Civilisation	Strasbourg University:	Nov 1921
	The Trees and the Wall	Banquet, Strasbourg University:	Nov 1921
	Waking from Dreams	High Commissioner's Lunch, Strasbourg:	Nov 1921
	Surgeons and the Soul	Royal College of Surgeons:	Feb 1923
	Independence	Rectorial Address, St. Andrews:	Oct 1923
	The Classics and the Sciences	University College, Dundee:	Oct 1924
	Work in the Future	Rhodes Scholars, Oxford:	June 1924
	Shipping	U.K. Chamber of Shipping:	Feb 1925
	Stationery	Stationers' Company:	July 1925
	Fiction	Royal Literary Society:	July 1926
	The Spirit of the Latin	Brazilian Academy of Letters, Rio:	March 192'7
	Our Indian Troops in France	La Bassée	Oct 1927
	Passengers at Sea	Liverpool Shipbrokers’ Benevolent Society	26 Oct 1928
	Healing by the Stars	Royal Society of Medicine	15 Nov 1928
	School Experiences	King’s School Junior School, Canterbury	5 Oct 1029
	France and Britain	Association France-Grande Bretagne	2 July 1931
	Speech to Canadian Authors	Canadian Authors’ Association	12 Jul 1933
	An Undefended Island	The Royal Society of St George	6 May 1935

A Book of Words

Selections collected in A Book of Words from thirty-one speeches and addresses delivered between 1906 and 1927, together with six later speeches from the Sussex Edition

I iiIII IVVVIVII VIIIIXXXIXIIXIIIXIVXVXVIXVIIXVIIIXIXXXXXI XXIIXXIIIXXIVXXVXXVIXXVIIXXVIIIXXIXXXXXXXIXXXIIXXXIIIXXXIVXXXVXXXVIXXXVII

Notes by
Leonee Ormond

[April 25th 2011]

Publication History

This collection, with thirty-one speeches, was published by Macmillan in 1928. The last six speeches, making thirty-seven in all, were published in the Sussex Edition, volume XXV, in 1938.