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As Easy As A.B.C.
This scarce antiquarian book is a facsimile reprint of the original. Due to its age, it may contain imperfections such as marks, notations, marginalia and flawed pages. Because we believe this work is culturally important, we have made it available as part of our commitment for protecting, preserving, and promoting the world's literature in affordable, high quality, modern editions that are true to the original work.
36 pages, Paperback
First published January 1, 1901
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About the author
Rudyard Kipling
6,980 books3,624 followersJoseph Rudyard Kipling was a journalist, short-story writer, poet, and novelist.
Kipling's works of fiction include The Jungle Book (1894), Kim (1901), and many short stories, including The Man Who Would Be King (1888). His poems include Mandalay (1890), Gunga Din (1890), The Gods of the Copybook Headings (1919), The White Man's Burden (1899), and If— (1910). He is regarded as a major innovator in the art of the short story; his children's books are classics of children's literature; and one critic described his work as exhibiting "a versatile and luminous narrative gift".
Kipling was one of the most popular writers in the United Kingdom, in both prose and verse, in the late 19th and early 20th centuries. Henry James said: "Kipling strikes me personally as the most complete man of genius (as distinct from fine intelligence) that I have ever known." In 1907, at the age of 41, he was awarded the Nobel Prize in Literature, making him the first English-language writer to receive the prize, and its youngest recipient to date. He was also sounded out for the British Poet Laureateship and on several occasions for a knighthood, both of which he declined.
Awarded the Nobel Prize in Literature in 1907 "in consideration of the power of observation, originality of imagination, virility of ideas and remarkable talent for narration which characterize the creations of this world-famous author."
Kipling kept writing until the early 1930s, but at a slower pace and with much less success than before. On the night of 12 January 1936, Kipling suffered a haemorrhage in his small intestine. He underwent surgery, but died less than a week later on 18 January 1936 at the age of 70 of a perforated duodenal ulcer. Kipling's death had in fact previously been incorrectly announced in a magazine, to which he wrote, "I've just read that I am dead. Don't forget to delete me from your list of subscribers."
Kipling's works of fiction include The Jungle Book (1894), Kim (1901), and many short stories, including The Man Who Would Be King (1888). His poems include Mandalay (1890), Gunga Din (1890), The Gods of the Copybook Headings (1919), The White Man's Burden (1899), and If— (1910). He is regarded as a major innovator in the art of the short story; his children's books are classics of children's literature; and one critic described his work as exhibiting "a versatile and luminous narrative gift".
Kipling was one of the most popular writers in the United Kingdom, in both prose and verse, in the late 19th and early 20th centuries. Henry James said: "Kipling strikes me personally as the most complete man of genius (as distinct from fine intelligence) that I have ever known." In 1907, at the age of 41, he was awarded the Nobel Prize in Literature, making him the first English-language writer to receive the prize, and its youngest recipient to date. He was also sounded out for the British Poet Laureateship and on several occasions for a knighthood, both of which he declined.
Awarded the Nobel Prize in Literature in 1907 "in consideration of the power of observation, originality of imagination, virility of ideas and remarkable talent for narration which characterize the creations of this world-famous author."
Kipling kept writing until the early 1930s, but at a slower pace and with much less success than before. On the night of 12 January 1936, Kipling suffered a haemorrhage in his small intestine. He underwent surgery, but died less than a week later on 18 January 1936 at the age of 70 of a perforated duodenal ulcer. Kipling's death had in fact previously been incorrectly announced in a magazine, to which he wrote, "I've just read that I am dead. Don't forget to delete me from your list of subscribers."
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Displaying 1 - 18 of 18 reviews
August 14, 2022
"The ABC, that semi-elected semi-nominated body of a few score persons, controls the Planet."
"With the Night Mail" introduced readers to the Aerial Board of Control, a globalist organization in the year 2000 that has been designed to appease international conflict and promote trade via strict regulation of air traffic lifelines. Published in 1912, "Easy as A.B.C." takes place generations after its predecessor. Somewhere between the turn of the millennium and 2065, an epidemic swept the Earth, causing the populace to develop new cultural norms of social distancing to the point where personal space and privacy are valued above everything. People do not congregate in crowds any longer, and largely keep to themselves. Meanwhile, a portion of the populace is rejecting globalism, clamoring for democracy, and wanting a return to the Old Days when people could hold public forums, religious ceremonies, concerts, and various other forms of traditional human interaction.
Did Kipling foresee COVID-19?!?!
Of all places, Chicago seems to be leading the dissenting charge, though much of Illinois still abhores a crowd. A fleet of ABC ships descend upon the rebellious city, led by Board representatives from Russia, Japan, England, and America who are so out-of-touch that they don't even remember where on the planet Illinois is. Finding that Chicago truly has become MAGA country, the Board orders a blinding energy beam attack on the citizens.
This sequel has a very different tone from the first book, which was a prototype hard sci-fi novella with an optimism for the future and an idealized outlook regarding global government. Here we find a more satirical and dark Kipling. But what exactly the author was trying to convey has been the subject of some debate.
One interpretation is that Kipling wrote this story as a vision of his own idea of utopia--people keeping to themselves and minding their own business. But in my opinion, that contradicts what we know about Kipling and the text itself. He certainly didn't seem to think England's failure to mind its own business was a problem. Too many people, even so-called intellectuals and professional critics, make the assumption that the personal sympathies of writers must be in line with those of their characters, which is nonsense. You can write about a racist serial killer and not be a racist or a serial killer.
It is clear that Kipling was simply playing forward what he was witnessing throughout the course of his life in technology, politics, and society. His text paints a neurotic world, not a utopia, where the birth rate is steadily declining so that there are only about 450 million people left despite a massively prolonged lifespan, no wars, and improved public services, a world where people wall themselves off in little enclaves and will fight like angry badgers to keep others away from their own content antisocial isolation, a world where a global air traffic control department can routinely and unilaterally exceed its reach by zapping private citizens who do not submit and obey.
There is no doubt that Kipling was a product of his time. He was born in India and primarily grew up speaking Hindi. He only understood Empire as a cog in the middle class. As he grew older, he simply saw this way of life as a means of opportunity. He had little reason to question the system that gave him birth. But certain things did happen that may have slowly eaten away at this veneer. The Boer War was an embarrassment to England and the reputation of its military prowess. You can see that after 1900 Kipling toned down being so obvious a defender and voice for imperialist England when compared to his heyday in the last decade of the 19th Century. Then, several years after writing this book, Kipling's own son Jack was to be killed on the Western front during WWI. Though he publicly came to terms with the loss as "the burden," the sacrifice for bringing civilization to the "unfortunates" of the world, I think it is in writings such as "Easy as ABC" that we get hints of Kipling's secret thoughts, concerns about Empire that perhaps he would never admit to himself, but which would nevertheless sneak out of his pen.
I have seen some blogs and articles use this book as a reason to label Kipling as suspicious of democracy, since in this story the fate of those clamoring for a return to politics of the people is less than dignified. Perhaps they are right. But if that were the whole picture, I don't think he would have painted a world without democracy in such a silly and, frankly disturbing, light. Literally.
But whatever this story conveys, it was clearly written by a more cautious and skeptical version of Kipling than the one who created "With the Night Mail," and who is light-years different from the young lad who wrote "The Man Who Would Be King." I found this novella to be the most interesting of all of his works that I've read thus far, and well worth experiencing and contemplating, even if the title gets a certain song stuck in your head by the Jackson Five.
"With the Night Mail" introduced readers to the Aerial Board of Control, a globalist organization in the year 2000 that has been designed to appease international conflict and promote trade via strict regulation of air traffic lifelines. Published in 1912, "Easy as A.B.C." takes place generations after its predecessor. Somewhere between the turn of the millennium and 2065, an epidemic swept the Earth, causing the populace to develop new cultural norms of social distancing to the point where personal space and privacy are valued above everything. People do not congregate in crowds any longer, and largely keep to themselves. Meanwhile, a portion of the populace is rejecting globalism, clamoring for democracy, and wanting a return to the Old Days when people could hold public forums, religious ceremonies, concerts, and various other forms of traditional human interaction.
Did Kipling foresee COVID-19?!?!
Of all places, Chicago seems to be leading the dissenting charge, though much of Illinois still abhores a crowd. A fleet of ABC ships descend upon the rebellious city, led by Board representatives from Russia, Japan, England, and America who are so out-of-touch that they don't even remember where on the planet Illinois is. Finding that Chicago truly has become MAGA country, the Board orders a blinding energy beam attack on the citizens.
This sequel has a very different tone from the first book, which was a prototype hard sci-fi novella with an optimism for the future and an idealized outlook regarding global government. Here we find a more satirical and dark Kipling. But what exactly the author was trying to convey has been the subject of some debate.
One interpretation is that Kipling wrote this story as a vision of his own idea of utopia--people keeping to themselves and minding their own business. But in my opinion, that contradicts what we know about Kipling and the text itself. He certainly didn't seem to think England's failure to mind its own business was a problem. Too many people, even so-called intellectuals and professional critics, make the assumption that the personal sympathies of writers must be in line with those of their characters, which is nonsense. You can write about a racist serial killer and not be a racist or a serial killer.
It is clear that Kipling was simply playing forward what he was witnessing throughout the course of his life in technology, politics, and society. His text paints a neurotic world, not a utopia, where the birth rate is steadily declining so that there are only about 450 million people left despite a massively prolonged lifespan, no wars, and improved public services, a world where people wall themselves off in little enclaves and will fight like angry badgers to keep others away from their own content antisocial isolation, a world where a global air traffic control department can routinely and unilaterally exceed its reach by zapping private citizens who do not submit and obey.
There is no doubt that Kipling was a product of his time. He was born in India and primarily grew up speaking Hindi. He only understood Empire as a cog in the middle class. As he grew older, he simply saw this way of life as a means of opportunity. He had little reason to question the system that gave him birth. But certain things did happen that may have slowly eaten away at this veneer. The Boer War was an embarrassment to England and the reputation of its military prowess. You can see that after 1900 Kipling toned down being so obvious a defender and voice for imperialist England when compared to his heyday in the last decade of the 19th Century. Then, several years after writing this book, Kipling's own son Jack was to be killed on the Western front during WWI. Though he publicly came to terms with the loss as "the burden," the sacrifice for bringing civilization to the "unfortunates" of the world, I think it is in writings such as "Easy as ABC" that we get hints of Kipling's secret thoughts, concerns about Empire that perhaps he would never admit to himself, but which would nevertheless sneak out of his pen.
I have seen some blogs and articles use this book as a reason to label Kipling as suspicious of democracy, since in this story the fate of those clamoring for a return to politics of the people is less than dignified. Perhaps they are right. But if that were the whole picture, I don't think he would have painted a world without democracy in such a silly and, frankly disturbing, light. Literally.
But whatever this story conveys, it was clearly written by a more cautious and skeptical version of Kipling than the one who created "With the Night Mail," and who is light-years different from the young lad who wrote "The Man Who Would Be King." I found this novella to be the most interesting of all of his works that I've read thus far, and well worth experiencing and contemplating, even if the title gets a certain song stuck in your head by the Jackson Five.
December 4, 2016
In January of 2015, while browsing Project Gutenberg, I discovered a science fiction story written by Rudyard Kipling in 1905, titled With The Night Mail.
Here is my review of that story https://www.goodreads.com/review/show...
At the time, I thought I would never be able to read the 1912 sequel, since it was not available at Gutenberg. But recently my GR friend Ladiibbug read With The Night Mail and was inspired to search out the sequel. When she found the story, she sent me the link for it, and before I go any further I want to say "Thank You, Ladiibbug!!"
Now to the story. With The Night Mail was set in the year 2000, and supposedly the sequel would be just 60 years later, but it was actually set in the year 2150. Here is how it begins, with a quote from the previous story, and then our narrator begins to speak:
The A.B.C., that semi-elected, semi-nominated body of a few score persons, controls the Planet. Transportation is Civilisation, our motto runs. Theoretically we do what we please, so long as we do not interfere with the traffic and all it implies. Practically, the A.B.C. confirms or annuls all international arrangements, and, to judge from its last report, finds our tolerant, humorous, lazy little Planet only too ready to shift the whole burden of public administration on its shoulders. ~~ With the Night Mail, 2000 AD
ISN'T it almost time that our Planet took some interest in the proceedings of the Aerial Board of Control? One knows that easy communications nowadays, and lack of privacy in the past, have killed all curiosity among mankind, but as the Board's Official Reporter I am bound to tell my tale.
At 9.30 A.M. on August 26, the Board, sitting in London, was informed by De Forest (U.S.) that the District of Northern Illinois had riotously cut itself out of all systems and would remain disconnected till the Board should take over and administer it direct.
Every Northern Illinois freight and passenger tower was, he reported, out of action; all District main, local, and guiding lights had been extinguished; all General Communications were dumb, and through traffic had been diverted. No reason had been given, but he gathered unofficially from the Mayor of Chicago that the District complained of "crowd-making and invasion of privacy."
As a matter of fact, it is of no importance whether Northern Illinois stay in or out of planetary circuit; as a matter of policy, any complaint of invasion of privacy needs immediate investigation, lest worse follow.
This makes only a tiny bit of sense to me, and the rest of the story frankly was not much easier to understand. There was a revolt of sorts and the board went to take care of the situation, but I never did really 'get it'. I ended my late night hours with Kipling wondering what in the hell he had wanted to say and what was going on in the world at the time to make him want to say it.
So after my in-laws went home this morning, I puttered around Wiki a little bit. I found that Kipling surely had many situations weighing on his mind at the time of writing this story: Germany changing the political climate in Europe, the buildup to the first Balkan War (which would eventually lead to WWI), Ireland and the Home Rule issue, to name a few. I suppose all of that could have been blended together, then mixed with his own rather imperialistic views and the result would be this story, which is basically an example of how the A.B.C. would deal with a group of people who refuse to continue living under what had become the accepted normal conditions of their times.
Here is the Board member from Italy, the inventor of the ship carrying our reporter to the scene:
"Our folk own themselves. They were of opinion things were going too far and too fiery. I warned the Serviles; but they're born house-dwellers. Unless a fact hits 'em on the head, they cannot see it. Would you believe me, they went on to talk of what they called 'popular government'? They did! They wanted us to go back to the old Voodoo-business of voting with papers and wooden boxes, and word-drunk people and printed formulas, and news-sheets! They said they practised it among themselves about what they'd have to eat in their flats and hotels."
So what should be done with such people, anyway? The rest of the story shows us. But the solution is as confusing as the problem, at least to me.
I must say that none of my research really helped me understand this weird little story any better than I did at first. But I did find two fascinating articles about Kipling's writing and the influence it had on the Science Fiction/Fantasy writers of later days. The second article has some insight on As Easy As A.B.C., and is well worth reading if you are a Kipling fan.....or even if you are not but wonder why others are. I think I will go back to re-read some of his work and explore titles that I skipped in my younger days, because now I am curious and we all know howdangerous fun that can be!
Rudyard Kipling Invented SF!
http://esr.ibiblio.org/?p=234
A Master Of Our Art ~~ Rudyard Kipling And Modern Science Fiction
http://www.kiplingsociety.co.uk/facts...
Here is my review of that story https://www.goodreads.com/review/show...
At the time, I thought I would never be able to read the 1912 sequel, since it was not available at Gutenberg. But recently my GR friend Ladiibbug read With The Night Mail and was inspired to search out the sequel. When she found the story, she sent me the link for it, and before I go any further I want to say "Thank You, Ladiibbug!!"
Now to the story. With The Night Mail was set in the year 2000, and supposedly the sequel would be just 60 years later, but it was actually set in the year 2150. Here is how it begins, with a quote from the previous story, and then our narrator begins to speak:
The A.B.C., that semi-elected, semi-nominated body of a few score persons, controls the Planet. Transportation is Civilisation, our motto runs. Theoretically we do what we please, so long as we do not interfere with the traffic and all it implies. Practically, the A.B.C. confirms or annuls all international arrangements, and, to judge from its last report, finds our tolerant, humorous, lazy little Planet only too ready to shift the whole burden of public administration on its shoulders. ~~ With the Night Mail, 2000 AD
ISN'T it almost time that our Planet took some interest in the proceedings of the Aerial Board of Control? One knows that easy communications nowadays, and lack of privacy in the past, have killed all curiosity among mankind, but as the Board's Official Reporter I am bound to tell my tale.
At 9.30 A.M. on August 26, the Board, sitting in London, was informed by De Forest (U.S.) that the District of Northern Illinois had riotously cut itself out of all systems and would remain disconnected till the Board should take over and administer it direct.
Every Northern Illinois freight and passenger tower was, he reported, out of action; all District main, local, and guiding lights had been extinguished; all General Communications were dumb, and through traffic had been diverted. No reason had been given, but he gathered unofficially from the Mayor of Chicago that the District complained of "crowd-making and invasion of privacy."
As a matter of fact, it is of no importance whether Northern Illinois stay in or out of planetary circuit; as a matter of policy, any complaint of invasion of privacy needs immediate investigation, lest worse follow.
This makes only a tiny bit of sense to me, and the rest of the story frankly was not much easier to understand. There was a revolt of sorts and the board went to take care of the situation, but I never did really 'get it'. I ended my late night hours with Kipling wondering what in the hell he had wanted to say and what was going on in the world at the time to make him want to say it.
So after my in-laws went home this morning, I puttered around Wiki a little bit. I found that Kipling surely had many situations weighing on his mind at the time of writing this story: Germany changing the political climate in Europe, the buildup to the first Balkan War (which would eventually lead to WWI), Ireland and the Home Rule issue, to name a few. I suppose all of that could have been blended together, then mixed with his own rather imperialistic views and the result would be this story, which is basically an example of how the A.B.C. would deal with a group of people who refuse to continue living under what had become the accepted normal conditions of their times.
Here is the Board member from Italy, the inventor of the ship carrying our reporter to the scene:
"Our folk own themselves. They were of opinion things were going too far and too fiery. I warned the Serviles; but they're born house-dwellers. Unless a fact hits 'em on the head, they cannot see it. Would you believe me, they went on to talk of what they called 'popular government'? They did! They wanted us to go back to the old Voodoo-business of voting with papers and wooden boxes, and word-drunk people and printed formulas, and news-sheets! They said they practised it among themselves about what they'd have to eat in their flats and hotels."
So what should be done with such people, anyway? The rest of the story shows us. But the solution is as confusing as the problem, at least to me.
I must say that none of my research really helped me understand this weird little story any better than I did at first. But I did find two fascinating articles about Kipling's writing and the influence it had on the Science Fiction/Fantasy writers of later days. The second article has some insight on As Easy As A.B.C., and is well worth reading if you are a Kipling fan.....or even if you are not but wonder why others are. I think I will go back to re-read some of his work and explore titles that I skipped in my younger days, because now I am curious and we all know how
Rudyard Kipling Invented SF!
http://esr.ibiblio.org/?p=234
A Master Of Our Art ~~ Rudyard Kipling And Modern Science Fiction
http://www.kiplingsociety.co.uk/facts...
August 10, 2025
Maybe I would’ve liked this more if I had read With the Night Mail. I doubt it though, and this definitely didn’t inspire me to go back and read it.
December 13, 2021
Storiella di fantascienza e fantapolitica in cui il sistema democratico è ritenuto un'aberrazione da soffocare, per cui i rappresentati governativo vengono subito mandati in Illinois a sedare dei rivoltosi e a riportarli in riga.
February 2, 2022
This might have been quite good if the plot was extended. As is, I found it a little confusing
November 28, 2016
Book 2 Aerial Bontrol of Control - Sci Fi
Two very short stories which follow With The Night Mail: A Story Of 2000 Ad. Originally published in London Magazine in March and April 1912, the fleet of the A.B.C. is mobilized and races to quell an uprising in Chicago.
This was mostly a quick look at the powers of totalitarianism.
Two very short stories which follow With The Night Mail: A Story Of 2000 Ad. Originally published in London Magazine in March and April 1912, the fleet of the A.B.C. is mobilized and races to quell an uprising in Chicago.
This was mostly a quick look at the powers of totalitarianism.
October 5, 2018
As fascinating and prescient as the first story about the world-dominating Aeriel Board of Control, this was its opposite. This is White Privilege apologia, with racism that is harsh to modern ears. Even worse, the story is not interesting in the slightest, existing merely as an excuse to explain why The Poors should be grateful for the beneficence of the ruling class.
June 23, 2019
Just finished reading this story in an OOP Sci-Fi short story collection from 1964, "17x Infinity" - which I got from Bulgaria, and which, to my mind, is very much worth reading - apart from this Kipling-contribution, that is...
Kipling can't be read today without being aware of his political leanings, but from my short research, I can't find out whether this story is Klipling fictionalising and "futurising" some of his own world-views, or Kipling merely imagining what a future society might look like.
Alas, as I see the message Kipling intends to transport with this story as unclear (Would he approve of this potential outcome? Is he afraid of it, or would he regret it? None or all of this?), and didn't like the story, I will not research this point any further.
I did like the fluent syle of the writing though, felt mildly entertained - and it made me reflect enough to come here to write about it: The story does give pause for thought, and can encourage a wide range of opinions and emotions.
Kipling can't be read today without being aware of his political leanings, but from my short research, I can't find out whether this story is Klipling fictionalising and "futurising" some of his own world-views, or Kipling merely imagining what a future society might look like.
Alas, as I see the message Kipling intends to transport with this story as unclear (Would he approve of this potential outcome? Is he afraid of it, or would he regret it? None or all of this?), and didn't like the story, I will not research this point any further.
I did like the fluent syle of the writing though, felt mildly entertained - and it made me reflect enough to come here to write about it: The story does give pause for thought, and can encourage a wide range of opinions and emotions.
September 27, 2019
I was pretty confused on the context of this book until I read some other reviews and realized that this is a sequel to a book that I have not read, With the Night Mail: A Story of 2000 A.D.. I feel that I can't really give this a fair review without reading the first book in the series. This definitely intrigued me and I will be looking to read With the Night Mail: A Story of 2000 A.D. soon!
December 19, 2023
A strange story from the turn of last century. As a SF writer, Kipling was no great shakes, but as a satirist, he had some promise. The depiction here of a world which has controlled its population and turned the idea of crowds and voting and democracy, not to mention administration in general, as bad things, or at least, things no one wants, is absurd. But there will always be that small band of rebels (and in this case, small is correct—the rest of the people have become giants, but these people are short, which tells you something about Kipling’s worldview) who will fight for their rights. I can’t recommend it, although it’s an interesting experience.
January 24, 2025
An interesting little read.
Easy to follow story for a book that written 120 years ago.
The technology is certainly intriguing - very much Hugo Gernsback, but less prescient, perhaps.
There's definitely satire in there, but I'm not enough of a student of Edwardian history to say what was being parodied.
I'm becoming a Kippler.
May 21, 2024
Pretty interesting, I’ll make sure to reread it in 2065.
December 4, 2024
Old but not bad.
February 22, 2022
A sequel to With the Night Mail but set in 2065 telling the story of how the
January 31, 2016
Not so much a story as the steps involved in putting down a rebellion. The rebellion is in Illinois and the putting it down is done by the airships of the Fleet of the Aerial Control Board. “Transportation is Civilization. Democracy is Disease.” And that’s the basic theme of the story. Anyone believing in democracy is obviously not right in the head. All of the “protagonist” characters believe that and the “antagonists” are self-entitled and self-righteous. Clearly the believers in democracy can’t function in normal society. People preferred to be ruled and those who don’t have mental issues that have to be dealt with before they infect other people.
Two stars and a tiny bit of concern for whether this was part of Kipling’s actual personality coming through, though it seems more likely he was just trying to make the story more alarming.
Two stars and a tiny bit of concern for whether this was part of Kipling’s actual personality coming through, though it seems more likely he was just trying to make the story more alarming.
February 27, 2014
This short story was written over 100 years ago (in 1912), and is very interesting in its view of how a very small group of people could obtain totalitarian control over the whole world via control of aerial transportation. The degree of control obtained is quite scary. The story falls into the fallacy of the technologically advanced totalitarian society: where are the engineers, technicians, etc going to come from when the leadership suppresses anyone capable of thinking or standing up for themselves? This story simply presented a snapshot of how the ruling group brutally maintained their power. It didn't have a plot, just an accounting of how a revolt was put down and totalitarian control maintained.
December 23, 2021
Just not good. I came across this book while looking at other material and felt that I should read it because I was curious how well Kipling's science fiction writing was and what exactly it was about. And I was so sorely disappointed, just bad, and incomprehensible. I could not follow the book at all.
Displaying 1 - 18 of 18 reviews