Rudyard Kipling's Obsession with the Blackest Ink

Rudyard Kipling, the celebrated author of The Jungle Book and Kim, was famously particular about his writing tools. In his autobiography Something of Myself, he confessed that all "blue-blacks" were "an abomination to my Daemon" - and he meant it. When it came to ink, Kipling demanded nothing less than the blackest available.

His ideal setup? Hand-ground Indian ink, the traditional kind made by grinding an ink stick with water on a stone. "For my ink I demanded the blackest," he wrote, "and had I been in my Father's house, as once I was, would have kept an ink-boy to grind me Indian-ink." This wasn't mere preference - it was a requirement for his creative process.

The Magic of Proper Tools

Kipling believed deeply in the connection between tools and craft. He described his writing implements with almost mystical reverence: "The magic lies in the Brush and the Ink," he wrote, noting that "bottled ink is not to compare with the ground Chinese stick."

For editing, he recommended "well-ground Indian Ink" applied with a camel-hair brush, declaring that "the Pen, when it is writing, can only scratch." This wasn't pretension - Kipling genuinely felt that inferior tools produced inferior work.

An Ink-Splattered Journalist

Kipling's passion for ink was legendary among his colleagues. One described the young journalist as someone who "never knew such a fellow for ink - he simply revelled in it, filling up his pen viciously, and then throwing the contents all over the office." By day's end, Kipling would be "spotted all over with ink in every direction."

Beyond ink, Kipling was particular about his pens too. He favored Waverley nibs and later adopted a fountain pen he nicknamed "Jael" - a biblical reference to a woman who drove a tent peg through an enemy's head. The pen, he noted with satisfaction, "has never failed me."

Why Black Ink Mattered

In Kipling's era, writers had numerous ink choices: blue-black (a popular compromise), pure blue, even red for corrections. But Kipling rejected them all. Black ink provided the strongest contrast on paper, making manuscripts easier to read and less likely to fade.

For an author who revised obsessively and needed to see his words clearly, the blackest ink wasn't vanity - it was practical necessity. Plus, Indian ink's permanence meant his manuscripts would endure, which they have. Many of Kipling's handwritten pages survive today, the ink still deeply black after more than a century.