Rudyard Kipling may have admitted to plagiarizing passages in one of his most famous works, The Jungle Book. In a letter that is going up for sale, the famous British author admitted that he “promiscuously” borrowed from other sources while writing “The Laws of the Jungle” in the famous story.
The Telegraph reports that the letter was signed by Kipling and addressed to an unknown woman. In it, he apologizes for not replying to her letter about the Laws of the Jungle sooner.
He then writes: “I am afraid that all that code in its outlines has been manufactured to meet 'the necessities of the case': though a little of it is bodily taken from (Southern) Esquimaux rules for the division of spoils.
In fact, it is extremely possible that I have helped myself promiscuously but at present cannot remember from whose stories I have stolen.”
the letter was acquired by Adam Andrusier at a New York Antiquarian book fair in April, reports The Guardian. He is hoping to get £2,500 ($3,780) for the letter, noting that, “letters by Kipling that mention his most enduring work are extremely rare.”
The Jungle Book, which included the Laws of the Jungle poem, was published in 1894. Earlier this year, a set of 50 poems by Kipling that were believed to be lost forever were published for the first time after they were discovered in a Manhattan house.