THE LETTERS OF RUDYARD KIPLING

Transcription

1 THE LETTERS OF RUDYARD KIPLING

2 Kipling on the steps of his private rail-car, 'Dalton', in Canada, October Kipling and his wife travelled from Quebec to Vancouver and back to Montreal in this car, put at their disposal by the Canadian Pacific Railway (Collier's Magazine, 14 March 1908).

3 The Letters of Rudyard Kipling Volume Edited by THOMAS PINNEY p Igrave I 11

4 * The Letters of Rudyard Kipling by the National Trust for Places of Historie Interest or Natural Beauty 1996 Selection and editorial matter Thomas Pinney 1996 Softcover reprint of the hardcover 1 st edition All rights reserved. No reproduction, copy or transmission of this publication may be made without written permission. No paragraph of this publication may be reproduced, copied or transmitted save with written permission or in accordance with the provisions of the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988, or under the terms of any lieence permitting limited copying issued by the Copyright Licensing Agency, 90 Tottenham Court Road, London WH 4LP. Any person who does any unauthorised act in relation to this publieation may be liable to criminal prosecution and civil claims for damages. The authors have asserted their rights to be identified as the authors of this work in accordance with the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act First published 1996 Reprinted 2004 by PALGRAVE MACMILLAN Houndmills, Basingstoke, Hampshire RG21 6XS and 17S Fifth Avenue, New York, N.Y Companies and representatives throughout the world PALGRAVE MACMILLAN is the global academie imprint of the Palgrave Macmillan division of St. Martin's Press, LLC and of Palgrave Macmillan Ltd. Macmillan is a registered trademark in the United States, United Kingdom and other countries. Palgrave is a registered trademark in the European Union and other countries. ISBN DOI / ISBN (ebook) Volume 1: (ISBN ) Volume 2: (ISBN ) First published in 1990 Volume 4: (ISBN ) First published in 1999 Volume 5: (ISBN ) Volume 6: (ISBN ) First published in 2004 Set of six volumes: ISBN This book is printed on paper suitable for recycling and made from fully managed and sustained forest sources. A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library

5 Contents List of Illustrations Preface and Acknowledgements Chronology of Rudyard Kipling's Life, vi ix xi The Letters, I South Africa and Sussex, Disappointments and Honours, III In Liberal England and on the Continent, Register of Names and Correspondents 476 v

6 List of Illustrations Frontispiece: Kipling on the steps of his private rail-car, "Dalton", in Canada, October Kipling and his wife travelled from Quebec to Vancouver and back to Montreal in this car, put at their disposal by the Canadian Pacific Railway (Collier's Magazine, 14 March 1908). Plates 1. Cecil Rhodes on the verandah of Groote Schuur (Cape Archives, Cape Town). 2. The Woolsack, the house on the Rhodes estate where Kipling spent every winter from to 1908 (University of Cape Town Libraries). 3. The staff of the Bloemfontein Friend, March-April 1901: H. A. Gwynne, Perceval Landon, Kipling, Julian Ralph (Transvaal Archives, Pretoria). 4. Colonel Henry Wemyss Feilden, Kipling's neighbour and closest friend in Burwash (Sir Henry Feilden). 5. The east front of Bateman's, Kipling's horne from 1902 (Bateman's, National Trust). 6. Aboard the Kenilworth Castle returning to England from the Cape, April 1907: John and Eisie Kipling seated on the deck, Carrie and Kipling standing (University of Cape Town Libraries). 7. Kipling in his doctor's gown, Oxford, June 1907 (Bodleian Library). 8. Sir John Bland-SuUon and Kipling arriving at the Middlesex Hospital before Kipling's speech to the students of the Medical School, 1 October 1908 (Sir John Bland-Sutton, The Story 0/ a Surgeon, 1930). 9. Opening ceremonies, Rhodes Memorial, Table Mountain, Cape Town, 1912, Earl Grey presiding (Cape Archives, Cape Town). In-text illustrations 1. Sullivan, the lion cub, on the stoep of The Woolsack (Houghton Library, Harvard University). 43 vi

7 List 0/ Illustrations vii 2. Kipling "drinking the coffee of separation" in Henry James's Lamb House: sketch by Philip Bume-Jones (1903) (Houghton Library, Harvard University) Rebus letter to B. H. Walton, [10 August 1904] (Library of Congress) "The Divotee Club": drawing by Kipling (Dalhousie University) "Anonymous Letter" to Cormell Price, 30 January 1906 (Library of Congress) Medallion portrait of Elsie Kipling by Henry Pegram, September 1907 (Bateman's, the National Trust) "The Song of Songs which is Solomon's", drawing and text ~~~ ~ 8. Sketch in letter to Lord Milner, 27 January 1908 (Bodleian Library) Watercolour design for stained-glass window: "Patience and Chastity Alluring Saint Jameson to Golf", April 1908 (Dalhousie University). 319

8 Preface and Acknowledgements To the list of abbreviations and short tities in the first volume of this edition the following items are added: Dunham Papers Motor Tours Rees extracts Bateman's Visitors Book Papers of Josephine Balestier Dunham in the care of Wolcott B. Dunharn, Jr, New York City. Accounts by RK of his motor tours in England and abroad, March 1911-August 1926: typescript, Kipling Papers, University of Sussex. A typescript containing summaries of and extracts from Caroline Kipling's diaries, , made by Mr Douglas Rees for Lord Birkenhead when the latter was engaged on the biography of Kipling authorised by Kipling's daughter, Mrs Bambridge. The Rees extracts to a large extent duplicate the extracts later made by Charles Carrington from the same diaries that I refer to in the notes as "CK diary". But the two sets of extracts are by no means identical, and each is a valuable supplement to the other. A copy of the Rees extracts in the pos session of Mrs Rees was made available to me through the good offices of Sir Anthony Kenny and the generosity of Mrs Rees. Another copy has now been placed in the Kipling Papers at the University of Sussex. Blank book containing arecord of visitors to Bateman's, All of the entries are in RK's hand, except for the three by CK in ix

9 x Preface and Acknowledgements I should like to acknowledge here the assistance I have been given towards the annotation of this volume by Mrs Sally R. Hofmann, of London, whose knowledge of the archival resources of London has been invaluable to me. I also wish to record the loss to this edition of one of its best friends in the death of Miss Matilda Tyler, of New Haven, Connecticut. The most energetic and indefatigable of Kipling enthusiasts, Tilly never failed to respond to an editor's many questions and requests with keen interest and ready willingness to help. The great Kipling collection that she formed is now her memorial as the Tyler Collection in the Beinecke Library of Yale University. In the first volume of this edition I described, as an editor is bound to do, something of the losses that must be deducted from the sum of Kipling's extant letters - almost all his letters to his parents, for example. Many reviewers fixed on this fact and, understandably, regretted how much, on account of such los ses, we shall never know about Kipling. I should like to emphasise here how much, none the less, we still have. As Johnson said on a very different occasion, "in this work, when it shall be found that much is omitted, let it not be forgotten that much likewise is performed" - not, I hasten to add, by the editor, but by the writer of the letters.

10 Chronology of Rudyard Kipling's Life, January To South Africa. 19 March-1 April In Bloemfontein on staff of The Friend. 11 April Return to England. 90ctober Makes political speech at Tisbury. 200ctober 8December Opens Rottingdean rifle range. To South Africa; they live at The Woolsack on the Rhodes estate. 17 April Return to England. June Buys first automobile, a Locomobile July With Channel Fleet on manoeuvres. October Kim. 21December To South Africa. 26 March Death of Cecil Rhodes. 16 April Return to England. September Just So Stories. 3 September Move to Bateman's, Burwash, Sussex. 27 December To South Africa. 25 March-5 April To Johannesburg and Pretoria. 22 April Return to England. 10ctober The Five Nations. 12December To South Africa. February Makes political speeches in Cape Town. March Trip to Kimberley. 13 April Return to England. October Traffies and Discoveries 10 December To South Africa. 5 April Return to England. 24 November Dines with Rhodes scholars at Oxford. 23December To South Africa. xi

11 xii Chronology 01 Rudyard Kipling's Life, March To Johannesburg and Pretoria. 18 April Return to England. SMay Speech at Royal Academy dinner. August Sailing on Norfolk Broads. Attends manoeuvres on Salisbury Plain. October Puck 01 Pook's Hili. 15December To South Africa April Return to England. 24, 27June Receives honorary degrees at Durham and Oxford. September John Kipling enters St Aubyn's School, Rottingdean. 20 September- Canadian tour: Quebec, Montreal, Ottawa, 240ctober Winnipeg, Calgary, Vancouver, Toronto. November Awarded Nobel Prize Oecember To Stockholm and back. 28December To South Africa April Return to England: they do not visit South Africa again. 17June Honorary degree from Cambridge. c. July Letters to the Family August Motor tour through north of England. 29December To Engelberg, Switzerland March-13 April In Rome. October Actions and Reactions. c. November Abajl the Funnel January In Engelberg. March In Vernet-Ies-Bains, where CK takes sulphur treatment. 26 March-2 April Return to England by car through France. 4May Death of Cormell Price. October Rewards and Fairies. 22 November Death of Alice Kipling. 29December To Engelberg.