Travel by Design
Houzz Tours
See the Vermont House Where Rudyard Kipling Wrote ‘The Jungle Book’
The author penned many works here, including his children’s classic, which Disney has remade into a movie
In the snowy Green Mountains of Vermont, Rudyard Kipling spun tales of a boy raised by wolves in the steamy Indian jungle. The Bombay-born and British-educated author had married an American and built his dream house near her family in 1893. Here in the house he named Naulakha, Hindi for “priceless jewel,” Kipling rejoiced in domesticity, nature and his newborn daughter, Josephine. Words flowed, and by the next year, he’d written The Jungle Book for her.
The family’s idyll in the States was short-lived. But the popularity of Mowgli the man-cub endures. Disney’s remake of its 1967 animated Jungle Book opens April 15, and stars Bill Murray, Ben Kingsley, Scarlett Johansson, Idris Elba and newcomer Neel Sethi as Mowgli. And Warner Bros. also has a version — with Andy Serkis, Christian Bale, Cate Blanchett and Benedict Cumberbatch — due out in 2018. As for Naulakha, Landmark Trust USA restored it and maintains it as a vacation rental, where you can eat at Kipling’s table, soak in his tub and enjoy considerably more than the bare necessities.
The family’s idyll in the States was short-lived. But the popularity of Mowgli the man-cub endures. Disney’s remake of its 1967 animated Jungle Book opens April 15, and stars Bill Murray, Ben Kingsley, Scarlett Johansson, Idris Elba and newcomer Neel Sethi as Mowgli. And Warner Bros. also has a version — with Andy Serkis, Christian Bale, Cate Blanchett and Benedict Cumberbatch — due out in 2018. As for Naulakha, Landmark Trust USA restored it and maintains it as a vacation rental, where you can eat at Kipling’s table, soak in his tub and enjoy considerably more than the bare necessities.
For Rudyard was as much of a celebrity by age 27 as the actors supplying the voices for Disney’s latest movie. The Jungle Book, a combination of live-action and computer-generated imagery, stars Murray as Baloo the bear, Kingsley as Bagheera the black panther, Johansson as Kaa the python and Elba as Shere Khan the tiger.
Photo from Disney Enterprises
Photo from Disney Enterprises
Rudyard, who had made nine trans-Atlantic or trans-Pacific crossings between the ages of 17 and 28, wanted the house — his first — to resemble a ship riding the hillside like a wave. At the southerly bow, his first-floor study and the second-floor nursery open onto verandas. The formal garden has since been removed.
Photo from Landmark Trust USA
Photo from Landmark Trust USA
The eat-in kitchen — with its original range hood, hearth stone and Southern yellow pine cabinetry — occupies the stern. Thanks to the restoration efforts of Landmark Trust USA, a nonprofit organization dedicated to preserving historic U.S. buildings, it looks much the same as it did when the Kiplings lived here. Adding modern conveniences like the refrigerator, range and dishwasher, just barely visible at right, enabled Landmark Trust to rent the house and sustain it as “living history.”
Photo by Kelly Fletcher
Photo by Kelly Fletcher
De Forest, trained as a painter by Frederic Church and an early business partner of Louis Comfort Tiffany’s, met Rudyard’s father, Lockwood Kipling, while on his honeymoon in India. The elder Kipling, an illustrator and art scholar, nurtured de Forest’s budding passion for the area’s handicrafts. When de Forest returned to the States, he embarked on a distinguished career in the decorative arts, furnishing the Gilded Age homes of Andrew Carnegie and the like in Indian style.
Photo by Kelly Fletcher
Photo by Kelly Fletcher
Next to the dining room, the shingled loggia brings the outdoors in, with a picture window that lifts entirely into the ceiling and doors that disappear into pockets. “The joy of the house is the loggia,” Rudyard wrote in a letter to his cousin Margaret Mackail, “with the 10-foot window that slides up bodily and lets all the woods and mountains in upon you in a flood.”
Some walls of the loggia were subsequently removed to form a large living area. “We knew from Kipling’s letters how important this room was, so we were committed to putting it back,” says Kelly Carlin of Landmark Trust USA. “Fortunately, we were able to find all of the original pocket doors and ash paneling in one of the barns at Scott Farm down the road, covered in 100 years of bat guano.”
Photo by Peter Mauss
Some walls of the loggia were subsequently removed to form a large living area. “We knew from Kipling’s letters how important this room was, so we were committed to putting it back,” says Kelly Carlin of Landmark Trust USA. “Fortunately, we were able to find all of the original pocket doors and ash paneling in one of the barns at Scott Farm down the road, covered in 100 years of bat guano.”
Photo by Peter Mauss
Here, the Kiplings entertained guests, including Sherlock Holmes creator Arthur Conan Doyle and his brother over Thanksgiving 1894. “I had brought up my golf clubs and gave him lessons in a field,” Conan Doyle recalled in Memories and Adventures, “while the New England rustics watched us from afar, wondering what on earth we were at, for golf was unknown in America at that time.”
In fact, the Shinnecock Hills Golf Club had already opened the first U.S. clubhouse, designed by architect Stanford White, in Southampton, New York, in 1892. Less than a month after Conan Doyle’s visit to Naulakha, Shinnecock Hills and four other clubs formed the United States Golf Association.
Rudyard’s golf clubs, shown in their original location in the first photo of the loggia above, are now behind glass in a mini museum on the third floor.
Above, the view from the south doorway of the dining room looks into the loggia, through Caroline’s study to Rudyard’s study, with its door to the veranda beyond.
In fact, the Shinnecock Hills Golf Club had already opened the first U.S. clubhouse, designed by architect Stanford White, in Southampton, New York, in 1892. Less than a month after Conan Doyle’s visit to Naulakha, Shinnecock Hills and four other clubs formed the United States Golf Association.
Rudyard’s golf clubs, shown in their original location in the first photo of the loggia above, are now behind glass in a mini museum on the third floor.
Above, the view from the south doorway of the dining room looks into the loggia, through Caroline’s study to Rudyard’s study, with its door to the veranda beyond.
From her study, Caroline could keep a watchful eye on the center hall, left, and loggia, right, to intercept intrusive reporters and autograph hounds.
“Although not given to hospitality of herself, and averse to the prodigality of her husband’s social instincts, Mrs. Kipling was, in many respects, an admirable wife for a genius,” Rudyard’s friend Mary Rogers Cabot wrote to her sister, Grace Cabot Holbrook, in 1911. “She guarded his health, assumed the supervision of every detail of the routine of his daily life, published his works, was his business agent, and stood between him and any obstacles to the free and full development of his powers.”
Two photos above by Kelly Fletcher
“Although not given to hospitality of herself, and averse to the prodigality of her husband’s social instincts, Mrs. Kipling was, in many respects, an admirable wife for a genius,” Rudyard’s friend Mary Rogers Cabot wrote to her sister, Grace Cabot Holbrook, in 1911. “She guarded his health, assumed the supervision of every detail of the routine of his daily life, published his works, was his business agent, and stood between him and any obstacles to the free and full development of his powers.”
Two photos above by Kelly Fletcher
The fireplace in Caroline’s study is one of six in the house. It shares a chimney with the fireplace in Rudyard’s study, below.
In the brick surround of Rudyard’s fireplace, his father inscribed a somberly motivating verse from the Gospel of John: “The night cometh when no man can work.”
An ornate teak cornice, a gift from de Forest, decorates the east-facing bay window in Rudyard’s study. An original alabaster light fixture (now electrified) hangs from the ceiling. Out of sight to the left of the red leather sofa is the door that opens to the veranda.
Two photos above by Peter Mauss
An ornate teak cornice, a gift from de Forest, decorates the east-facing bay window in Rudyard’s study. An original alabaster light fixture (now electrified) hangs from the ceiling. Out of sight to the left of the red leather sofa is the door that opens to the veranda.
Two photos above by Peter Mauss
At Naulakha, it seems, Rudyard needed little prodding to write. Working religiously from 9 a.m. to 1 p.m. weekdays, he penned his first books for children: The Jungle Book and The Second Jungle Book. He also wrote Captains Courageous, The Seven Seas and much of The Day’s Work and Many Inventions. This desk is a period piece. Rudyard’s original one is in the third-floor museum.
Rudyard had the windows on the west side of his study covered with bookcases and Tiffany glass panels to keep from being spied upon. Today the shelves hold books that the Kiplings would’ve been likely to own, plus ones about the Nobel Prize-winning author and Vermont.
Rudyard had the windows on the west side of his study covered with bookcases and Tiffany glass panels to keep from being spied upon. Today the shelves hold books that the Kiplings would’ve been likely to own, plus ones about the Nobel Prize-winning author and Vermont.
In the afternoons, Rudyard hit the great outdoors. He became such an enthusiastic golfer that he took breaks from his writing to play in the dead of winter with tin cups and balls that he painted red. The United States Golf Association credits him with inventing the game of snow golf.
“He was intensely interested in all athletics, though playing more like a poet than an athlete,” wrote the Rev. Charles O. Day, a golfing buddy, in 1899. “He would discourse most eloquently about the uses of the ‘ski,’ of snowshoeing and of golf. His play was good, but his dramatic description immensely better.”
Rudyard played tennis too, and the court he built at Naulakha is said to have been Vermont’s first. It’s still in use today.
“He was intensely interested in all athletics, though playing more like a poet than an athlete,” wrote the Rev. Charles O. Day, a golfing buddy, in 1899. “He would discourse most eloquently about the uses of the ‘ski,’ of snowshoeing and of golf. His play was good, but his dramatic description immensely better.”
Rudyard played tennis too, and the court he built at Naulakha is said to have been Vermont’s first. It’s still in use today.
“The making of Naulakha was a great interest and delight to Rudyard,” Mary Cabot wrote. “Kipling had never had a real home since his days in Lahore [in Pakistan]. The laying of each stone and timber, interior development and finish, were followed by his close and tender observation. Of special importance to him was the arrangement of grounds and formal garden. He cared for every tree and shrub, investing them with poetic individuality, and tended the flowers with affection, as his daily portion of work, through their season.”
Three photos above by Kelly Fletcher
Three photos above by Kelly Fletcher
When the loggia’s oversize window and doors are open, the morning sun illuminates the center hall, and breezes waft up the staircase. At the top, a hallway leads south to what was once the nursery, on the right, for Josephine and, in 1896, for sister Elsie, and to Rudyard and Caroline’s bedroom on the left.
The colored military etchings on the wall were a gift from prominent French military artist Édouard Detaille. The light fixture is original.
Photos above and left by Peter Mauss
The colored military etchings on the wall were a gift from prominent French military artist Édouard Detaille. The light fixture is original.
Photos above and left by Peter Mauss
Today the nursery is one of four bedrooms accommodating a total of eight people. It lies directly above Rudyard’s study.
Here, Rudyard invented fantastical bedtime stories — origin tales like “How the Whale Got Its Throat” — which Josephine would beg him to retell in exactly the same way, or “just so.”
Rudyard’s father made the plaster animal scene decorating the nursery as a gift for his granddaughters. He also illustrated the original Jungle Book and its sequel.
Photos above and left by Kelly Fletcher
Here, Rudyard invented fantastical bedtime stories — origin tales like “How the Whale Got Its Throat” — which Josephine would beg him to retell in exactly the same way, or “just so.”
Rudyard’s father made the plaster animal scene decorating the nursery as a gift for his granddaughters. He also illustrated the original Jungle Book and its sequel.
Photos above and left by Kelly Fletcher
“[Josephine’s] nursery — the bay window in the second story and running back the whole depth of the house — gives onto a second piazza where she can nearly always get out,” Rudyard wrote to his cousin Mackail.
Rudyard was such a firm believer in the importance of fresh air for youngsters that he began giving those dreaded autographs in exchange for donations to the Fresh Air Fund, a nonprofit agency that sends low-income children from New York City on vacations in the country. It still exists today.
“A favorite subject was children, their seriousness and their depth,” Day wrote. “He said that he who could reach the child’s heart could reach the world’s heart.”
Rudyard was such a firm believer in the importance of fresh air for youngsters that he began giving those dreaded autographs in exchange for donations to the Fresh Air Fund, a nonprofit agency that sends low-income children from New York City on vacations in the country. It still exists today.
“A favorite subject was children, their seriousness and their depth,” Day wrote. “He said that he who could reach the child’s heart could reach the world’s heart.”
Their en suite bathroom features the original oak-trimmed soaking tub and toilet, now 123 years old. “Kipling once said this was the first bathtub that met his needs,” Landmark Trust’s Carlin says.
Photo by Kelly Fletcher
Photo by Kelly Fletcher
On the third floor, small dormers in the roof light a playroom complete with the billiard table Rudyard requested to match one he’d seen in the home of Mark Twain, whom he greatly admired.
“Lavish too was the long open attic, as I realised when too late, [builder Jean] Pigeon asked me whether I would have it finished in ash or cherry,” Kipling wrote. “Ignorant that I was, I chose ash, and so missed a stretch of perhaps the most satisfying interior wood that is grown. Those were opulent days, when timber was nothing regarded, and the best of cabinet-work could be had for little money.”
Three photos above by Peter Mauss
“Lavish too was the long open attic, as I realised when too late, [builder Jean] Pigeon asked me whether I would have it finished in ash or cherry,” Kipling wrote. “Ignorant that I was, I chose ash, and so missed a stretch of perhaps the most satisfying interior wood that is grown. Those were opulent days, when timber was nothing regarded, and the best of cabinet-work could be had for little money.”
Three photos above by Peter Mauss
That bit of buyer’s remorse notwithstanding, the Kiplings seemed to have had every intention of staying at Naulakha until a dispute over a hayfield with Caroline’s brother escalated into death threats and a lawsuit. A media circus ensued, and the publicity-shy Kiplings fled to England in 1896.
Siblings Mary, Grace and Will Cabot, along with Grace’s husband, Frederick Holbrook, bought Naulakha for $5,000 in 1903. It remained in the Holbrook family until it was acquired by Landmark Trust USA in 1992.
“And so, in this unreal life, indoors and out, four years passed, and a good deal of verse and prose saw the light,” Rudyard reminisced about his time in Vermont. “Better than all, I had known a corner of the United States as a householder, which is the only way of getting at a country. Tourists may carry away impressions, but it is the seasonal detail of small things and doings (such as putting up fly-screens and stove-pipes, buying yeast-cakes and being lectured by your neighbours) that bite in the lines of mental pictures.”
Photo by Paul Osborne
“And so, in this unreal life, indoors and out, four years passed, and a good deal of verse and prose saw the light,” Rudyard reminisced about his time in Vermont. “Better than all, I had known a corner of the United States as a householder, which is the only way of getting at a country. Tourists may carry away impressions, but it is the seasonal detail of small things and doings (such as putting up fly-screens and stove-pipes, buying yeast-cakes and being lectured by your neighbours) that bite in the lines of mental pictures.”
Photo by Paul Osborne
“Ninety feet was the length of it and 30 the width, on a high foundation of solid mortared rocks which gave us an airy and a skunk-proof basement,” Rudyard wrote in his memoir, Something of Myself. “The rest was wood, shingled, roof and sides, with dull green hand-split shingles, and the windows were lavish and wide.”
All the rooms face east to take advantage of the views across the Connecticut River Valley toward Mount Monadnock in New Hampshire. The main entrance, protected by a gabled porte cochere, is on the west side of the house. A hallway running along that side on each floor served as a buffer against the paparazzi of the day, who congregated on the hill outside.
Photo by Kelly Fletcher