A letter has been discovered recently by Jarndyce Antiquarian Booksellers which shows Rudyard Kipling admitting to plagiarism in one of his most famous reads, The Jungle Book. The letter, which has now been put up for sale by Andrusier Autographs for 2,500 pounds, is written by Kipling to a female correspondent who he refers to only as ‘madam’ at the beginning.
In the letter Kipling admits to “promiscuously” borrowing from sources he no longer remembers to come up with some parts of the Laws of the Jungle which are taught by Baloo to Mowgli in the First Jungle Book. They then appear in verse in the Second Jungle Book as follows:
“Now this is the Law of the Jungle — as old and as true as the sky; / And the Wolf that shall keep it may prosper, but the Wolf that shall break it must die, /The Kill of the Pack is the meat of the Pack. Ye must eat where it lies; / And no one may carry away of that meat to his lair, or he dies.”
Andrusier, who is in possession of the letter, feels pleased with Kipling’s frankness about having plagiarised.