Rudyard Kipling

in flood time, as he is travelling to a volunteer rifle match. The tale would introduce the country-bred white of the Indian RR's - a parsee engine driver and so on - all the difference that there is between an American + an Indian line. I should prefer 3500 w[ords] to turn in but if you find that does not meet your approval kindly let me know and we will try something else. I used to know something of our Indian railway line. It’s community apart. Very many thanks for Sir E[dwin] Arnolds Jungle Life series. I am doing a set of tales on the same subject more or less for St Nicholas, giving the Jungle people’s views of mankind [...]“. - Kipling's works of fiction include "The Jungle Book" (a collection of stories which includes "Rikki-Tikki-Tavi"), the "Just So Stories" (1902), "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 enduring 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 England, in both prose and verse, in the late 19th and early 20th centuries. In 1907, 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..

P.S. I do not recall that there was any special significance in the rocks etc. above the cave in the illustration to “The Cat that Walked”. There you have the advantage of me." Avery’s response to Kipling's letter is as follows: "Dear Sir, Please accept my thanks for your kind letter. I am enclosing a rough tracing taken from the illustration of the “Cat that Walked” to indicate the outlines that suggested to me grotesque monsters devouring female figures – the waistband, skirt & foot indicating the one, and the back, part of upper of arm, waistline & part of skirt indicating the other figure. I thought you might be interested in seeing the foundation on which my imagination had built. Again thanking you for your Kindness, Believe me, Yours sincerely….” Avery was a chemical consultant who lived and worked in Australia, but visited London in 1924 in an attempt to persuade British papermakers to use Eucalypts in their pulping processes. It was presumably during his time in London that this letter was written. An interesting letter, providing insight into Kipling's motivations for the illustrations in Just-So. Included: A copy of Avery's original letter to Kipling, dated Nov 25th 1924..

He developed into an excellent organiser, and in 1924 organised the Pageant of Empire at Wembley Stadium; in 1934, he devised and organised the Pageant of Parliament at the Royal Albert Hall. In after years, he moved to Antibes" (Valerie Langfield: Roger Quilter. His Life and Music. Woodbridge, The Boydell Press, 2002, p. 287). - On headed paper..

Rudyard Kipling was just one of the literary luminaries enticed to join the ranks of contributors to William Waldorf Astor's Gazette under the editorship of Harry Cust, who transformed the publication into one of the best respected evening journals of the time after his appointment in 1892; alongside Kipling, it featured work from H. G. Wells, Algernon Swinburne, Jack London, and Joseph Conrad. The manuscript was probably written between 1892 and 1896: Kipling writes on the same theme in an article published by The Times on 20 August 1892 entitled "Half-a-Dozen Pictures", and by 1896 Cust had ceased to edit the Gazette..

And their metres conformed to their scheme. Later, when they drew free of the first stresses, they pinned their themes to some small intense personal aspect of some small thing, long watched and intensely pored over. (All the same as a man under fire in a tobacco field for hours, watches the wet trickling down the veined leaves till they seem part of his brain.) The fellows who hadn't 'been there' imitated - that's my theory - and emphasized the note and structure of harshness without the authentic experiences to bite it in." A few years later, Kipling reflects on his legacy: "Moreover, people who are interested in modern poetry are not enamoured of my stuff which, to them, represents - quite naturally - outworn methods, settings and adjectives, plus an objectionable 'political outlook and orientation'". - Kipling advises Gorell to avoid Pope's 'heroic' tradition' within his own poetry, praises an article by Wylde on modern India, and disputes Gorell's faith in progress: "It is not 'progress' nor have 'brigandage and warfare' ceased within this land. Any one who takes a walk after paying his taxes knows better". He praises the Cornhill Magazine, discusses the thankless job of running any magazine, and questions the purpose of releasing public statements in praise of Cornhill: "I know all this sounds abominably ungracious, but, after all, one has only one life to live"..