Caroline "Carrie" Starr Balestier Kipling (December 31, 1862 – December 19, 1939) was the American-born wife of

Rudyard Kipling Joseph Rudyard Kipling ( ; 30 December 1865 – 18 January 1936)''The Times'', (London) 18 January 1936, p. 12. was an English novelist, short-story writer, poet, and journalist. He was born in British Raj, British India, which inspired much o ...

and the custodian of his literary legacy after his death in 1936. Balestier was born in

Rochester, New York Rochester () is a city in the U.S. state of New York, the seat of Monroe County, and the fourth-most populous in the state after New York City, Buffalo, and Yonkers, with a population of 211,328 at the 2020 United States census. Located i ...

, to a prominent local family with a reputation for being unconventional. Her paternal grandfather, whose ancestors were from

Martinique Martinique ( , ; gcf, label=Martinican Creole, Matinik or ; Kalinago language, Kalinago: or ) is an island and an Overseas department and region, overseas department/region and single territorial collectivity of France. An integral part of ...

, was a founder of the

Century Association The Century Association is a private social, arts, and dining club in New York City, founded in 1847. Its clubhouse is located at 7 West 43rd Street near Fifth Avenue in Midtown Manhattan. It is primarily a club for men and women with distinctio ...

; her maternal grandfather was E. Peshine Smith, who with Commodore Perry completed commercial negotiations with Japan. Balestier met Kipling via her brother

Wolcott Balestier Charles Wolcott Balestier (December 13, 1861 – December 6, 1891) was a promising American writer, editor, and publisher who died young, and is now remembered primarily for his connection to Rudyard Kipling. His sister Carrie Balestier married ...

who had co-authored The Naulahka with Kipling. Balestier had come to London to keep house for her brother and serve as hostess for him. She taught Kipling how to use a typewriter. When Wolcott Balestier died suddenly of typhoid in 1891, Kipling was distraught and spent time with Miss Balestier, proposing to her via telegram and marrying her a week later. The couple were married in London on January 18, 1892. The bride was given away by Henry James who exclaimed "It’s a union of which I don’t forecast the future." The Kiplings had planned a round-the-world trip for their honeymoon but Kipling's bank failed, causing them to relocate to Balestier's family residence in

Brattleboro, Vermont Brattleboro (), originally Brattleborough, is a town in Windham County, Vermont, United States. The most populous municipality abutting Vermont's eastern border with New Hampshire, which is the Connecticut River, Brattleboro is located about ...

. Once the Kiplings built the family house, Naulakha, Rudyard Kipling would write in an office that could only be accessed via Carrie Kipling's own office, where she would maintain his correspondence and manage the household accounts. The Kiplings left the United States in 1896 after Rudyard Kipling and Caroline's brother Beatty had an altercation over money. The Kiplings eventually settled in England, in rural Burwash in the country of Sussex. They purchased

Bateman's Bateman's is a 17th-century house located in Burwash, East Sussex, England. It was the home of Rudyard Kipling from 1902 until his death in 1936. The house was built in 1634. Kipling's widow Caroline bequeathed the house to the National Trust o ...

, a grand house that had been built in 1634. Bateman's was Carrie Kipling's home from 1902 until her death in 1939.

References

External links

Rudyard Kipling Papers and other Kipling related collections
at The Keep,

University of Sussex , mottoeng = Be Still and Know , established = , type = Public research university , endowment = £14.4 million (2020) , budget = £319.6 million (2019–20) , chancellor = Sanjeev Bhaskar , vice_chancellor = Sasha Roseneil , ...

{{DEFAULTSORT:Kipling, Caroline Starr Balestier 1862 births 1939 deaths Family of Rudyard Kipling People from Rochester, New York American expatriates in England American people of Martiniquais descent