Kipling, Rudyard

Estimate

2,500 - 3,500 USD

bidding is closed

Description

ink on paper

Autograph letter signed ("Rudyard Kipling"), 1 1/2 pages (6 x 3 7/8 in.; 153 x 98 mm) on a bifolium of blue Burwash Etchingham letterhead, Sussex, 24 August 1905, to Mr. Alexander, marked "Private"; browned, rebacked. Half russet morocco folding-case.

Literature

Not in Letters of Rudyard Kipling, ed. Pinney, and apparently unpublished (but see Letters 3:189 for a related letter of 28 July to Bok)

Catalogue Note

Kipling inquires after Edward Bok, editor of the Ladies Home Journal, and describes his method of writing. "Thank you for your note. I am awfully sorry to hear about Bok's overdoing it but he is young enough to do that once if he will only take the warning, and complete his rest cure. If I'd known I'd never have sent the stories in for him to read. He ought not to see type for a couple of months." The stories Kipling had sent to Bok were the first historical fantasy tales that would form Puck of Pook's Hill. The first four stories from the collection were initially published in Ladies Home Journal.

Kipling's final paragraph somewhat brusquely addresses Alexander's inquiry about his working methods: "they are of no consequence to the public. Strictly between ourselves they are primitive not to say elementary. One pen, one ink pot, some paper and a table & chair are all I use in my job."