Caroline Starr Balestier Kipling (December 31, 1862 – December 19, 1939), also known as Carrie, 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 journalist, novelist, poet, and short-story writer. He was born in British Raj, British India, which inspired much ...

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

Rochester, New York Rochester is a city in and the county seat, seat of government of Monroe County, New York, United States. It is the List of municipalities in New York, fourth-most populous city and 10th most-populated municipality in New York, with a populati ...

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

Martinique Martinique ( ; or ; Kalinago language, Kalinago: or ) is an island in the Lesser Antilles of the West Indies, in the eastern Caribbean Sea. It was previously known as Iguanacaera which translates to iguana island in Carib language, Kariʼn ...

, 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 who had co-authored The Naulahka: A Story of West and East 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 Henry James ( – ) was an American-British author. He is regarded as a key transitional figure between literary realism and literary modernism, and is considered by many to be among the greatest novelists in the English language. He was the ...

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 New England town, town in Windham County, Vermont, United States, located about north of the Massachusetts state line at the confluence of Vermont's West River (Vermont), West River and the Connec ...

. 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 county of Sussex. They purchased Bateman's, 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 The University of Sussex is a public university, public research university, research university located in Falmer, East Sussex, England. It lies mostly within the city boundaries of Brighton and Hove. Its large campus site is surrounded by the ...

{{DEFAULTSORT:Kipling, Caroline Starr Balestier 1862 births 1939 deaths Family of Rudyard Kipling People from Rochester, New York American emigrants to the United Kingdom American people of Martiniquais descent 20th-century American women 20th-century American people