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The page proofs of Rudyard Kipling’s The Jungle Book have been allocated to Cambridge University Library, as part of the government’s Acceptance in Lieu scheme. As well as multiple volumes of Kipling proofs, including Rewards and Fairies and Puck of Pook’s Hill, the collection of works from literary agent A P Watt also includes an array of manuscripts by writers from the 1870s to the 1920s.
Sir Chris Bryant, arts minister, said: "The Jungle Book is a family classic that has spawned countless other works, including the famous Disney 1967 cartoon film and the 2016 film. Now that these proofs will be available at Cambridge University Library, I’m sure they will provide more than the bare necessities for academics, aspiring novelists and self-confessed book worms."
John Wells, senior archivist, said: “Taken together, the treasures found in the A P Watt collection are an exceptional accumulation of manuscripts and proofs of commercial prose from an era widely regarded as the heyday of the popular novel in this country. While Kipling’s legacy has been scrutinised more closely over recent years, there is little argument about his presence and place in the UK’s literary history or the enduring popularity of many of his works.
"The inclusion of the annotated proof of Kipling’s Rewards and Fairies (1910) is of special interest to the library, since in 1926 we received a donation from Kipling of the autograph manuscript of this book. The manuscript includes Kipling’s instructions to the printers, so we assume it to be the copy supplied to the printers for setting the proofs.
"The proofs in the Watt collection bear Kipling’s manuscript corrections, and together, the two items represent the interchange of texts between author and printers that resulted in the published volume.
"It’s wonderful to have the manuscript and the corrected proof reunited now in the same repository after a century apart."
Meanwhile, Pembroke College, Cambridge, has been allocated the travelling writing desk and contents which belonged to The Moonstone author Wilkie Collins. The desk was also among the archive of material from the A P Watt collection. Collins’ desk is identical in design to the one used by his friend Charles Dickens and dates from the mid-nineteenth century.