Many Inventions

Many Inventions
Author	Rudyard Kipling
Language	English
Genre	Short story collection
Publisher	Macmillan & Co., London; The Macmillan Company, New York;
Publication date	May 1893
Publication place	United Kingdom and United States
Pages	365 (First edition)
LC Class	PR4854 .M3 1893
Text	Many Inventions at Project Gutenberg Australia

Last updated January 19, 2026

Many Inventions is an 1893 collection of short stories by Rudyard Kipling. 11 of the 14 stories appeared previously in various publications, including The Atlantic Monthly and The Strand Magazine . Eight of the stories were written in England, while the other six were written in Vermont after Kipling had married and settled with Caroline Balestier.^[1]

The title refers to a verse from Ecclesiastes, which is quoted on the title page: "Lo, this only have I found, that God hath made man upright; but they have sought out many inventions." (Ecclesiastes 7:29)

The stories

The fourteen stories are preceded by a poem, "To the True Romance", and followed by another poem, "Anchor Song".

The Disturber of Traffic (First published in The Atlantic Monthly, September 1891)
A Conference of the Powers (First published in The Pioneer, May 1890)
My Lord the Elephant (First published in The Civil and Military Gazette , December 1892)
One View of the Question (First published in The Fortnightly Review , February 1890)
'The Finest Story in the World' (First published in The Contemporary Review , July 1891)
His Private Honour (First published in Macmillan's Magazine , October 1891)
A Matter of Fact (First published in People, January 1892)
The Lost Legion (First published in The Strand Magazine, May 1893)
In the Rukh (Not previously published. First appearance of Mowgli, but the last of his stories chronologically)
'Brugglesmith' (First published in The Week's News, October 1891)
'Love-o’-Women' (Not previously published)
The Record of Badalia Herodsfoot (First published in Harper's Weekly , November 1890)
Judson and the Empire (Not previously published)
The Children of the Zodiac (First published in Harper's Weekly, December 1891)

References

↑ Harbord, Reginald; Daintith, T. L. A.; Havholm, Peter. "Many Inventions". The Kipling Society . Archived from the original on 5 October 2023.

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[1] Harbord, Reginald; Daintith, T. L. A.; Havholm, Peter. "Many Inventions". The Kipling Society . Archived from the original on 5 October 2023.

[1]

v t e Rudyard Kipling
Bibliography
Novels	The Light That Failed (1891) The Naulahka (co-author, Wolcott Balestier, 1892) Captains Courageous (1896) Kim (1901)
Collections	Plain Tales from the Hills (1888) Soldiers Three (1888) The Story of the Gadsbys (1888) In Black and White (1888) The Phantom 'Rickshaw and Other Tales (1888) Under the Deodars (1888) Wee Willie Winkie and Other Child Stories (1888) From Sea to Sea and Other Sketches, Letters of Travel (1889) Barrack-Room Ballads (1892, poetry) Many Inventions (1893) The Jungle Book (1894) "Mowgli's Brothers" "Kaa's Hunting" "Tiger! Tiger!" "Rikki-Tikki-Tavi" The Second Jungle Book (1895) "Letting in the Jungle" "Red Dog" All the Mowgli Stories (c. 1895) The Seven Seas (1896, poetry) The Day's Work (1898) Stalky & Co. (1899) Just So Stories (1902) The Five Nations (1903, poetry) Puck of Pook's Hill (1906) Rewards and Fairies (1910) The Fringes of the Fleet (1915, non-fiction) Debits and Credits (1926) Limits and Renewals (1932) Rudyard Kipling's Verse: Definitive Edition (1940) A Choice of Kipling's Verse (by T. S. Eliot, 1941)
Poems	"The Absent-Minded Beggar" "The Ballad of the 'Clampherdown'" "The Ballad of East and West" "The Beginnings" "The Bell Buoy" "The Betrothed" "Big Steamers" "Boots" "Cold Iron" "Dane-geld" "Danny Deever" "A Death-Bed" "The Female of the Species" "Fuzzy-Wuzzy" "Gentleman ranker" "The Gods of the Copybook Headings" "Gunga Din" "Hymn Before Action" "If—" "In the Neolithic Age" "The King's Pilgrimage" "The Last of the Light Brigade" "Late Came the God" "The Lowestoft Boat" "Mandalay" "The Mary Gloster" "McAndrew's Hymn" "My Boy Jack" "Recessional" "A Song in Storm" "The Song of the Women" "The Sons of Martha" "Submarines" "The Sweepers" "Tommy" "Ubique" "The White Man's Burden"
Short stories	".007" "The Arrest of Lieutenant Golightly" "Baa Baa, Black Sheep" "Bread upon the Waters" "The Broken-Link Handicap" "The Butterfly that Stamped" "Consequences" "The Conversion of Aurelian McGoggin" "Cupid's Arrows" "The Devil and the Deep Sea" "The Drums of the Fore and Aft" "Fairy-Kist" "False Dawn" "A Germ-Destroyer" "His Chance in Life" "His Wedded Wife" "In the House of Suddhoo" "Kidnapped" "Learoyd, Mulvaney and Ortheris" "Lispeth" "The Man Who Would Be King" "A Matter of Fact" "Miss Youghal's Sais" "The Mother Hive" "The Other Man" "The Rescue of Pluffles" "The Ship that Found Herself" "The Sing-Song of Old Man Kangaroo" "The Taking of Lungtungpen" "Three and – an Extra" "The Three Musketeers" "Thrown Away" "Toomai of the Elephants" "Watches of the Night" "Wireless" "Yoked with an Unbeliever"
Works about	My Boy Jack (1997 play) The Long Recessional (2003) Rudyard Kipling: A Remembrance Tale (2006 documentary) Kipling Sahib (2007 book) My Boy Jack (2007 film)
Related	Bateman's (house) Indian Railway Library Ritual of the Calling of an Engineer Iron Ring Law of the jungle Aerial Board of Control
Family	Caroline Starr Balestier Kipling (wife) Elsie Bambridge (daughter) John Kipling (son) John Lockwood Kipling (father) MacDonald sisters (mother's family) Stanley Baldwin (cousin) Georgiana Burne-Jones (aunt) Edward Burne-Jones (uncle) Philip Burne-Jones (cousin) Edward Poynter (uncle) Alfred Baldwin (uncle)