SCHOOL LIBRARIES OF IMPERIAL LITERATURE
MR. KIPLING’S IDEAS.
A SHORT time ago the Secretary of the League of the Empire, whose object is the
promotion of correspondence and exchange of work between schools of corresponding grades throughout the Empire, received a letter from ahead boy in one of the large English public schools, asking which were the best books for a school library that would stimulate interest in Imperial matters generally. The Secretary, Mrs. Ord Marshall, therefore wrote to various well-known people who have shown interest in the League’s works, and asked for their views. Mr. Kipling and Mr. Chamberlain have both sent in lists of what they consider the best books for such a purpose; but as these lists contained no single book in common, it was thought well to open up what promises to be a most interesting correspondence on the subject. Mr. Kipling’s list, published in October, in the little Journal of the League, is as follows:—
Most of Parkman’s works, notably “Montcalm” and “Wolfe”,” The Old Regime in Canada” and “The Oregon Trail.”
The whole of Marryat, including “Mons. Violet,” “The Settlers in Canada.” Herman Melville’s “White Jacket” and “Moby Dick,” specially “Moby Dick.” Keene’s “Three Years of a Wanderer’s Life.”
Shipp’s “Memoirs” (reprinted).
“Hakluyt’s Voyages.”
“Nature and Sport in South Africa,” by Bryden.
“Annals of Rural Bengal,” by W. W. Hunter.
“Ross’s Voyages.”
O. Trevelyan’s “Competition Wallah.”
“Reminiscences of an Irish R.M.”
Mitford’s “Tales of Old Japan.”
E. J. Glave’s “Savage Africa.”
“Livingstone’s Travels.”
“Mungo Park’s Travels.”
Hudson’s “Idle Days in Patagonia.”
“Story of an African Farm.”
Any of the Log books of the “Log Series” issued by the Westminster Press. (These are records of battleships and cruisers.) Robinson’s “British Fleet.”
“A Gun Room Ditty Box,” by G. S. Bowles.
“A Stretch off the Land,” by G. S. Bowles.
“Our Sea Marks,” by Edwards.
Dana’s “Two Years Before the Mast.”
“The Cruise of the Midge.”
“Tom Cringle’s Log.”
“All the Rulers of India Series.”
“European Military Adventures of Hindostan.” “Hakdyad Abdullah.”
Arnold’s “Light of Asia.”
“Hajji Baba.”
Lady Baker’s “Christmas Cake in Four Quarters” (for juniors). Wallace’s “Malay Archipelago.”
“Cook’s Voyages.”
“Forty-one Years in India.”
Galton’s “Art of Travel.”
These are the books which Mr. Kipling thinks “may be useful to boys who are
interested in anything outside the limits of their immediate surroundings.” Review of Reviews 30(179). November 1904. 510.

The “little Journal of the League” would seem to be what the British Library has in their catalogue as League of the Empire. Monthly Record. no. 1-28. June 1904-Dec. 1906. The above item and list also appeared, with minor changes in some wording, in the below:
“Mr. Kipling’s Ideas for a School Library.” T. P.’s Weekly 4(108). December 2, 1904. 724.
“Mr. Kipling’s Ideas for a School Library.” Library World 7(78) December 1904. 163-164.
“A Kipling Library.” Duluth Evening Herald [MN]. December 28, 1904: 11 col 2.
“Mr. Kippling’s [sic] Ideas for a School Library.” Singapore Free Press and Mercantile
Advertiser. January 5, 1905: 12.
“A Kipling Library.” Oakland Tribune [CA]. February 24, 1905: 10.
“Kipling’s Choice of Books for Boys.” Vancouver Daily World [BC, Canada]. March 6, 1909: 35.
"Kipling on Books for Boys." Auckland Star [NZ]. May 2, 1905: 2 col 7.

Kipling had also praised those books elsewhere:

Herman Melville has it all in White Jacket, but it is awesome to see with bodily eyes.
Kipling, Rudyard. A Fleet in Being. Leipzig: Bernhard Tauchnitz, 1899. 128.

Moby Dick is one of the most glorious of all sea-pieces in all English written literature.
Pinney, Thomas, ed. The Letters of Rudyard Kipling: Volume 6, 1931-36. Iowa City: U of Iowa P, 2004. 163.