1904.
An excellent, unpublished letter from Rudyard Kipling to Edmund Garrett. Two handwritten sides of letter paper (single sheet, folded twice, approximately 272 words), signed "Rudyard Kipling", with a three line postscript signed "RK".Kipling opens by addressing Garrett's recent parody of him in The Spectator, "I allude to the parody in this week's Spec... showing that you are once more on deck with a cutlass in your hand." Kipling is not concerned about being criticised, indeed he is "awfully pleased" that Garrett is well enough to be publishing again, and beseeches him "now that you can do that much you might send me a letter and tell me how you really are."Kipling then share the news of their mutual friend the architect Herbert Baker, with whom Garrett shared a house in South Africa, "Baker was here with his fiancee before he made her his bride and she is a very sweet and graceful person - one likely to be good for J'berg which surely needs women. It was very pleasing to see Baker in love - much in love - moving about in worlds not realised."He then turns to politics, relating a recent visit of Leander Starr Jameson, who was "inclined to believe that things will some day go right at the Cape. A majority of 6 in the Lower & 4 in the Upper House is at least consoling and I confess I'm beginning to be hopeful". Kipling closes but asking if Garrett would make a return to South African politics, "Is there any chance of your taking ship and going down there for a while. I think you'd have an enthusiastic reception."Kipling signs, "ever yours sincerely Rudyard Kipling", before adding a three line postscript assuring Garrett that no offence was taken at the poem in The Spectator, "all the same it was a good parody, except where you broke up the metre in the last verse. RK."
A terrific letter from Kipling to Edmund Garrett, prompted by the Garrett's parody of him in the Spectator.
Garrett's parody in the Spectator was a poem titled 'Facts And The Boss' (August 6 1904), which was a reply to Kipling's 'Things And The Man', dedicated to Joseph Chamberlain (who played a central role in the Second Boer War) and first published in The Times just days earlier (August 1 1904).
Later writing of the parody, and Kipling's response to it, Garrett said "That small jape of mine brought a shower of letters from old friends and acquaintances, but Kipling's own magnanimous and jolly enjoyment of it was the best".
Garrett, like Chamberlain was a man of action admired by Kipling. Indeed, such was Kipling's admiration for Garrett that he seems in this letter not at all to mind being parodied in this way, and is more interested in the publication as evidence of Garrett's return to health than any kind or personal, political or literary slight.
Stock ID: 41810
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