Kipling in Japan
Yoshiaki Kuwano
[Yoshiaki Kuwano was born in 1964 near Osaka, where his father, a retired general, was stationed. He was educated at GAKUSHUIN — a private school in Tokyo, once solely for the education of children of the Japanese Imperial family. Members of the Imperial Household are still educated there. The present Emperor was there with John Lennon's wife, Yoko Ono.
Professor Kuwano studied literature and for his M.A. wrote a dissertation on the novels of Ernest Hemingway. In 1999 he came to London to study Kipling at the Institute of English Studies, London University. Although a great traveller, this was to be his first experience of living away from Japan for any great length of time.
Among his literary achievements are translations of encyclopedias and dictionaries on Witchcraft, American Pop Culture, Classical, Biblical, and Literary Allusions; and Cold Heaven, a novel by Brian Moore. He is keen on the history of ideas, especially Western mysticism and secret societies.
Professor Kuwano has been lecturing for 10 years, is an associate Professor at Ryutsu Keizai University near Tokyo, and Secretary of The Kipling Society in Japan, which he and Professor Hashimoto established four years ago. (Professor Hashimoto's translations of nine Kipling's short stories were reviewed by Sir Hugh Cortazzi in the Journal of March 1996. In 1988, Sir Hugh, a former British Ambassador to Tokyo and a leading Western authority on Japanese history, language and culture, had edited, with George Webb, Kipling's Japan.)
Professor Kuwano is aware that stereotypical images of Japan exist in the minds of many people. These are a mix of past and present images such as: Samurai, Kamikaze, Sony, Toyota, Honda, even Geisha. The last he has never come across. And in turn he is also aware of British stereotypes: the country of gentlemen in tail-coats and football hooligans. As a child he thought that the UK was represented by Queen — both Her Majesty and the rock band — by 007, the "Changing of the Guards", Highland bagpipes, Sir Edward Elgar, English gardens, tea, Jaguar, Rolls-Royce, Bentley, cricket, but above all The Monty Python's Flying Circus. Professor Kuwano referred to Michael Palin's BBC travel series and of Palin's 1989 visit to Japan, where in a department store in Tokyo, Palin was surprised by the extreme politeness of the staff in every department and the way they lined up at the top of their respective escalators to bow.[1] He had bought two pairs of trousers, and wrote: "Both trousers needed taking up, and the assistant apologised that this might take half-an-hour!". That is the kind of country, Professor Kuwano said, he comes from. Here is an edited version of the script of his talk to the Society on 16 February 2000. — Ed.]
One of keywords in my talk tonight is a 100 years. As you know, Kipling visited Japan in 1889, a 100 years before Michael Palin. He revisited Japan with his wife in 1892, and wrote about Japan. But Kipling is the superior writer, even though he may not match Palin as a comedian.
Some of you may have heard of Shinkansen — the Bullet train — which has been said to symbolise Japanese revival following its devastation at the end of 1945. It was built for the Tokyo Olympic Games held in 1964, the year I was born, and almost exactly a 100 years after Kipling's birth. The Japanese railway system was modelled after the British system. Generally, it is very convenient and comfortable, sometimes more so than its model. In his letters from Japan, Kipling refers to the Japanese railway at that time: "the result has been a railway that any nation might take off their hats to".[2] And a remark by a fellow-traveller on his way from Nagoya to Yokohama goes:
Yes, the Japanese are building railways all over the island. What I mean to say is that the companies are started and financed by Japs, and they make 'em pay. I can't quite tell you where the money comes from, but it's all to be found in the country. Japan is neither rich nor poor but just comfortable.[3]
This point, about money, I am going to mention in connection with the New Oriental Bank, which suspended payment and cause damage to Kipling while he was in Japan.
LETTERS FROM JAPAN
A passage from "The Man Who Would Be King" goes as follows:
One Saturday night it was my pleasant duty to put the paper to bed alone. A King or courtier or a courtesan or a Community was going to die or get a new Constitution, or do something that was important on the other side of the world, and the paper was to be held open till the latest possible minute in order to catch the telegram.[4]
"The Man Who Would Be King", one of my favourite Kipling stories, was written by 1888, before Kipling's first visit to Japan (1889). Incidentally, at that time, Japan was due for a new Constitution in February 1889, and which was granted by the Emperor two months before his landing. Kipling mentions the Constitution frequently in his letters, which give a vivid description of what Japan was like at that time. They are collected with some editing in From Sea to Sea. As a Japanese student of Kipling, I am indebted to a wonderful book called Kipling's Japan, which you may know and perhaps have read. Whenever reference to the letter number or quotations are made, it is to and from this reliable text. The letters from Japan are a fresh insight for a Japanese of my age, because much in them no longer exists.
Kipling first visited Japan with Professor and Mrs Hill. This visit was comparatively longer than the second one, and the schedule was very ambitious. What strikes me most about these 1889 letters of travel is that, along with beautiful scenery and people and the rigorous travel time-table, Kipling did not fail to observe the modernisation and westernisation of Japan. And if the keyword to his first visit was 'Constitution', the keyword to the second visit was 'Treaty Revision.'
TWO SYMBOLIC THINGS OF KIPLING'S SECOND VISIT
The two symbolic things in Kipling's second visit are indirectly connected with the development of Japan. In his third letter of 1892, he wrote about his fears of an earthquake. And that very day, his Bank suddenly crashed, suspending payments. His loss was nearly 2,000 pounds. He had to shorten the honeymoon and abandon the second prospected visit to R. L. Stevenson in Samoa. This was a great blow to him. As Carrington puts it: "Never again did he take ship east of Suez."[5] The crash of New Oriental Bank Corporation leads me to the relationship between its forerunner, which till 1884 was called the Oriental Bank, and the modernisation of Japan. A Japanese leader of this time, Count Okuma, wrote in his autobiography as follows:
Once the Oriental Bank had saved a critical condition [i.e. a threat of French invasion], our government was grateful to its friendly attitude, and the relation between the bank and the government became so close that whenever we had to ask for foreign help, the Oriental bank was the only agent: laying a railway, raising foreign loans, building the Mint Bureau, etc.[6]
Until the establishment of the Bank of Japan in 1882, the Oriental Bank Corporation had fulfilled this important mission for the Japanese government. The modernisation of Japan in such a short term was only possible with the help of Kipling's bank. The Japanese government could not help the New Oriental Bank, but unlike Kipling, the government was not damaged, and did not have to change plans. This, I feel, symbolises the shift of Japan to the new stage of modernisation and economic development.
Kipling's wife's grandfather, Judge Erastus Peshine Smith "was well remembered as legal adviser to the Mikado who broke down barriers that had closed Japan against the world."[7] Judge Erastus Peshine Smith served between 1871 and 1876 as the first consultant on International Law whom the Japanese Foreign Ministry employed at the very high salary of 10,000 dollars a year — to advise on treaty revision.[8]
The United States at that time persuaded the Japanese leaders to adopt the American model. It was the American Henry C. Carey, the worlds greatest, and most successful, living economist of that time, and Carey's representative, E. Peshine Smith, who led these and related efforts to spread the U.S. industrial model into Europe and Asia. And he was the very person who advised Japan in this movement for "Treaty Revision":
Between 1854 and 1869 the USA and many European countries entered into treaty relations with Japan. There were three main diplomatic consequences, briefly: (a) opening of the Treaty Ports; (b) extra-territoriality, i.e. exemption of their nationals from Japanese court jurisdiction; (c) lowered duties on trade goods entering Japan. By the 1870s, there was strong Japanese pressure for revision of these treaties, including abrogation of the clauses that were offensive to Japanese self-respect with their implication that Japan and her legal institutions were uncivilised. As early as 1876 the USA nearly, but not quite, arrived at a revision. Again, in 1889 several countries including the USA made substantial progress towards revision...[9]
When this first attempt by the Americans was made, Judge Peshine Smith, Carrie's grandfather, was in Japan and giving advice to the leaders of Japanese government. The crash of the new Oriental Bank and advice from Judge Peshine Smith, are of interest to a Japanese when he or she reads both Kipling and the Japanese history of this time.
A COMPARISON WITH HEARN
As a Japanese, I would like to try a brief comparative study between Kipling's letters from Japan and a series of reports on Japan by an English-speaking sojourner, who was in Japan at the same time. His name was Lafcadio Hearn. Unlike Kipling, Hearn decided to live in Japan, and eventually had a great influence on the education of English literature in Japan. He was also a great admirer of Kipling. Perhaps Hearn, known on Japan by his adopted name Koizumi Yakumo is, in Japan, the more famous of the two. He came to Japan as a correspondent to Harpers, in 1890, and was deeply fascinated by the scenic beauty of good old Japan. His love of Japan was not satisfied with just living there, but he married a Japanese, adopted Japanese dress, and became a naturalized Japanese citizen, though he never mastered the language.
Although both Kipling and Hearn began as journalists, they differ in their attitude towards understanding Japan. Hearn tried to understand Japan by crossing the cultural border. Kipling, on the other hand, observed and thought about Japan as a 'globe-trotter'. When I read Kipling's early stories: "Lispeth", "Beyond the Pale" or "The Mark of the Beast", I feel he is writing in the difference of cultures. When writing about cultural differences, a writer tends to describe one superior than the other, or so argue critics in post-colonial studies, as say, Edward Said. I think Kipling is purely interested in the "difference" itself. I think this makes his letters from Japan very readable. In his first letter, in 1889, Kipling describes a Japanese custom officer thus: "Had our stay been longer, I would have wept over him because he was a hybrid — partly French, partly German, and partly American — a tribute to civilisation."[10] This was his first impression. I feel, after that, although he was impressed by the scenic beauty of old Japan, he never failed to observe Japanese people and society. Hearn, on the other hand, was more impressed by the old Japan itself, and its suffering under "westernisation". He crossed the cultural border, but it was not by transcending the conflict between his "self and hybrid-Japan", but by creating a pastoral, mystical Utopia, decorated with images of Buddha.
I humbly admire Kipling's point of view as a globe-trotter. I also admire the great effort of Sir Hugh Cortazzi and Mr George Webb, to make his writings so very readable, with explanatory footnotes. Sadly, we haven't got a Japanese translation of Kipling's Japan yet. Mrs Webb told me that a translation is being made, but unfortunately I do not know the translator. I would like to be of assistance.
OYAYOI-GAIKOKUJIN (Foreign Employee)
In "Our Overseas Men" 1892, Letter Two, Kipling wrote as follows:
Tourists and you who travel the world over, be very gentle to the men of the Overseas Clubs. Remember that, unlike yourselves, they have not come here for the good of their health, and that the return ticket in your wallet may possibly a little colour your views of their land.[11]
Many Westerners at that time found living in Japan incredibly inconvenient. They were merchants, diplomats and servicemen. Among them, there were a group of people who are called by Japanese 'Oyatoi-Gaikokujin', or foreign employee. Carrie's grandfather, Judge Peshine Smith, was among them. With their help and advice, the new Japanese government undertook a programme of rapid modernisation and westernisation to equip Japan with military and economic strength to resist the imperialist ambitions of Western powers of that time. So successful was this programme that Japan itself, far from becoming a victim of imperialists, joined their ranks. The traditional Japanese schoolboys wore uniforms based on the Prussian Hussar, while the schoolgirls' dress were based on the British sailor uniforms with big sailor collars worn with pleated skirts. This reflects Japanese military history. In organising a modern army, Japanese leaders adopted the Prussian way, as is the case with the Meiji constitution, and the navy was modelled after the Royal Navy.[12] Even curry, one of the nation's favourites, is said to have been introduced by Royal Navy or by infantry men to Japanese forces, and not directly from India. As is often the case, we transformed curry into mild Japanese style, which goes well with sticky Japanese rice.
In his eleventh letter, 1889, Kipling made fun of Japanese infantry and cavalry. Traditionally my ancestors were officers of the Imperial Horse Guards, sadly, it might have been some of my ancestors who were "having a picnic... circling right and left by sections, trying to do something with a troop", on "thirteen-hand" ponies.[13]
It is possible that in 1892 Kipling anticipated "the most unpleasant possibilities"[14] if Japan and some other countries rushed into war. Two years after his second visit, the small infantry and the cavalry on ponies, together with the Imperial Navy trained by the Royal Navy, defeated China (Chino-Japanese War, 1894-5). The Anglo-Japanese Alliance was signed in 1902, and Japan beat Russia in 1904. Japan at this time seems as if she was walking on air. Proud of her Westernised Railway, Navy, Postal system, Lighthouses etc., she felt herself to be one among the great powers. Incidentally, it is often said that Japanese are not good at speaking English. But we are better at reading and listening. Kipling describes a man in the streets in Japan in his 1889 Letter 11:
Perfectly dressed Englishmen to the outer eye, but dumb. The country must be full of their likes. 'Good gracious! Here is Japan going to run its own civilisation without learning a language in which you can say "Damn satisfactory". I must inquire this.[15]
ENGLISH LITERATURE IN JAPAN
The main reason for acquiring English, from the Japanese point of view, was to gain knowledge. The introduction of English literature into Japan and the development of English studies were established chiefly by the British "foreign employee". Of the three who established the tradition, two were British and one was Japanese. They are Lafcadio Hearn (1850-1904), Soseki Natsume (1867-1916) and Edmund Charles Blunden (1896-1974). This is a one thousand yen (less than five sterling pound) bank note. On it is Soseki Natsume. As he is on a bank note he has to be famous. He was sent to the University of London by the Japanese Ministry of Education to study English and English Literature. He stayed in London from 1900 to 1903 as a visiting researcher, like myself, 100 years ago. (Though I envy his three years' stay in London, as mine will have been just one year.) How did Natsume see London 100 years ago? Of course, this was his first stay in a foreign country, and his diary shows how he felt the atmosphere of the fin-de-siécle. He wrote in October 1900: "I was at a loss since I do not know the paths. Besides, I was embarrassed by the crowds of people welcoming the soldiers came back from South Africa".[16] Later in January 1901 he wrote: "The Empress passed away at six thirty last night at Osborne. Flags are hoisted at half-mast. All the town is mourning. I, a foreign subject, also wear a black-necktie to show my respectful sympathy. 'The new century has opened rather inauspiciously,' said the shopman from whom I bought a pair of black gloves this morning."[17] But a far more interesting entry in his diary is his impression of Britain:
Britons think they are the strongest nation in the world. Frenchmen, too, think they are the strongest. Germans think so, too. They are becoming unaware of the history of the past. Rome fell. Greece fell, too. Shall not Britain, France and Germany of today fall someday? Japan has comparatively satisfiable history in the past. She is having a comparatively satisfiable present. What should be the future for her? Do not become complacent. Do not give up. Do not utter any complaints, like an ox. Work hard as a hen. Be humble and do not boast. Think seriously. Speak sincerely. Act honestly. The seeds you sow today will appear as the future you will get eventually... [18]
Although he does not say so, you can easily feel an echo of "Recessional" in this account. It is quite probable that he read it, or saw it on the wall of his landlord's sitting room.
The Anglo-Japanese alliance in 1902 was, to Natsume's eyes, "like a marriage between the rich and the poor. The poor was beside herself with joy. As a nation she was among the powers of the world at last." Here, Natsume maintained his composure and felt somewhat uneasy about the future of the rich; that is, the British Empire.[19]
As I said, many Japanese were beside themselves with joy on their mainland. But to Natsume, who read and knew much about the Boer War could not be with them in spirit. Kipling was rallying the British Empire to face up to the crisis of World War I. "Unless they please they are not heard at all..."[20] wrote Kipling in the "Fabulists" (19141918). Natsume knew what Kipling meant. Later, he was appointed a professor of English literature at Tokyo Imperial University. His lectures were said to be very formal and not amusing, and much to the disappointment of Ministry of Education, he soon resigned the post and became a very successful novelist. His predecessor at Tokyo Imperial University was Lafcadio Hearn. His lectures, chiefly on English Romantics, avoided interpretation and other methods of literary criticism. But he encouraged students to be immersed in the world of literature. Among contemporary writers, he valued Kipling highly. For example, he wrote to a friend that he was surprised by Kipling's "The Buddha at Kamakura", for that is exactly what he had wanted to express, but he could not. In a lecture 'On Composition', he praises Kipling thus:
There is of course the extraordinary genius of Kipling, who keeps aloof from all conventions, and has made new styles of his own in almost every department of pure literature. But there is no other to place beside him, and he probably owes his development quite as much to the fact that he was born in India as to his really astonishing talent. And this brings me to the last section of the lecture — the subject of language. One fact of Kipling's work, and not the least striking fact, is the astonishing use which he has made of the language of the people. Although a consummate master of serious and dignified style when he pleases to be, he never hesitates to his purpose better.[21]
In a lecture on "Modern English Criticism", he praises Kipling's short story technique and his art of the ballad:
And perhaps among the now living poets of genius the best imitator of fairy poem or ballads is Rudyard Kipling. Whenever Kipling writes a poem or ballad, however, he usually has a larger purpose than at first appears, and his "Last Rhyme of True Thomas" deserves mentioning here, not simply because of its wonderful excellence as weird poetry, but because it expresses the nobility and the power of the poet as a teacher and an artist. It was written when there was some discussion about calling Kipling to the laureateship, which you know was given to Alfred Austen, a very low fourth or fifth class poet. It then occurred to Kipling to express his thought about that matter in the form of a ballad. A king comes to make a knight of "True Thomas", the famous hero of many old Scotch ballads. But Thomas laughs at the offer of such honour. He takes his fairy harp and sings, and the king weeps. He plays again, and the king laughs. A third time he plays, and the king wants to go to war; a fourth time he plays, and the king becomes humble and gentle like a little child. Then says Thomas, "I can make you do whatever I wish, can make you laugh or weep or rage at my will; is it not ridiculous for you to talk about making me a knight?" I need scarcely explain the excellent irony concealed behind these quaint verses. Were they not written in dialect, I should like to quote them.[22]
This lecture by Hearn was given in a classroom of a Japanese university almost 100 years ago. Now to Edmund Blunden: he taught in Japan in Pre-War 1920s and in the late 1940s. I think his preference in literature was very important, because the old system and curriculum at universities were totally abolished by Douglas MacArthur's GHQ, and in addition, the words "Empire", "Imperial", "patriotic" or "military" became a kind of taboo in Japan. As you know, Blunden was not favourable to Kipling. A review on Kipling's The Irish Guards in the First World War (1923) clearly shows this.[23] Andrew Lycett's gives an account of this:
However, the poet Edmund Blunden, who later took on Rudyard's role as literary adviser to the War Grave Commission, dissented in the Nation and Athenaeum, arguing it was too dispassionate: "Mr Kipling appears not perfectly to understand the pandemonium and nerve-strain of war".[24]
Harry Ricketts, in his The Unforgiving Minute analyses that "Impatient with yet another non-combatant's account — perhaps especially from someone famous for his soldier writing — Blunden was determined to put the combatant point of view. Only those who had been there in the trenches would ever know, or could hope to express, what it had really been like."[25] Tonie and Valmai Holt feel that Blunden seems to resent anyone writing about the War who had not personally experienced its "appalling misery". Kipling did not belong to that large, but exclusive, club of war veterans.[26] In 1941, Blunden published a study on Thomas Hardy, (London Macmillan 1941) and quotes a review by John Baily, which appeared in The Bookman, to support his favourable evaluation of Hardy:
'The only possible contemporary rivals to the peasants of Wessex [in Hardy's works] are perhaps Mr. Kipling's private soldiers. However little we know of the barrack-room, we are for the moment as sure of them as we are of Gabriel Oak. But does not the actuality in them overweight the poetry? Are they not little too much of their own generation? Will they be as alive a hundred years hence as they are now? But Gabriel Oak will; he belongs to all generations, and is above all accident of time and place.[27]
In Edmund Blunden's time Japanese universities were being schooled into liberal point of view. Japan has a long history of centralisation of power. Educational system in Japan, too, was highly centralised. From the time of Imperial universities, it had been a government monopoly to translate, or review foreign literature. As we have seen, Lafcadio Hearn gave lectures mainly on Romantics. Natsume, his successor, on Romantics and on 18th Century literature. Contemporary literature had been ignored at Japanese universities till the Blunden regime, and he was not wholly sympathetic to Kipling. In addition, anti-military feelings are strong among academics and the liberals. This is has long been the case, particularly after World War Two. Prejudice against Kipling has been strong. Possibly through the influence of men like Lionel Trilling or Edmund Wilson in the 1950s. His works are considered to be imperialistic, jingoistic and reactionary and, therefore, not worth reading or studying.
So, in conclusion, may I say that the prospects for Kipling's popularity in Japan, at present, are gloomy; and these are some of the reasons:
Firstly, Kipling's works, especially his wonderful ballads and poems, are extremely difficult to translate. The Japanese language has only five vowels. Please look at the top of the handout. It reads Rudyard Kipling; pronounced in Japanese as Ra-do-ya-a-do Ki-pu-ri-n-gu. There is no distinction between L and R, and in a sentence, the verb comes at the end. These problems could be overcome, but there is a general lack of knowledge of Kipling's terms of reference, that are essential to understand his works. After World War II and demilitarisation, most Japanese could not tell you which is bigger, a regiment or a company? Also, Japan is not a Christian country so, for example, you have to put a long footnote when you translate the last sentence in "The Gardener". There has been no secret society like Freemasonry in Japan. It makes it very hard, almost impossible to translate the nuance of some words in Kipling, without putting long footnotes. But recently, attention has been focused on Kipling in the field of Post-Colonial studies, both favourably and unfavourably. Some Japanese scholars have become interested in Kipling while they were reading Edward Said's Orientalism or Culture and Imperialism. Some are favourable to Kipling. It is also a help, to those who can read English in Japan, that Penguin Books or Oxford University Press publish Kipling's major works. The Kipling Society of Japan, too, is fairly active in promoting Kipling. Not all the members love Kipling, but at least we all are interested in Kipling. There are about 30 academic members in our society. Some of my fellow scholars in the society have great knowledge of Tibetan Buddhism and have read Kim. Some specialise in Indian history and are interested in the aim of crossing the cultural borders. Some are even studying Kipling from the point of view of Gender studies. I, myself, took to studying Kipling by an initial interest in his style of writing and his art. But recently, especially during this stay in London, I find myself being drawn into this country's history and life-style through Kipling's works. At present I am preparing a paper on "As Easy as ABC" (1912).[28] The more Kipling I read, the more I am interested in his life and the problem of the coexistence of different cultures; and, of course, British and Japanese history. I would like to do more papers on Kipling, in order to encourage more brilliant scholars to read Kipling's original text, and to translate his works, in order to introduce him to the Japanese general reading public.
NOTES AND REFERENCES
[1]. Michael Palin, Around the World in 80 Days (London: BBC, 1999), 173.
[2]. Rudyard Kipling, From Sea to Sea Vol.1 (Macmillan Pocket Edition, London 1908), 392 (FSTS hereafter); Hugh Cortazzi and George Webb, eds., Kipling's Japan (London: the Athlone Press, 1988), 125 (Kipling's Japan hereafter).
[3]. FSTS, 396; Kipling's Japan, 128
[4]. Rudyard Kipling, "The Man Who Would Be King", Wee Willie Winkie and Other Stories (Macmillan Pocket Edition, London 1907), 209.
[5]. Charles Carrington, Rudyard Kipling. His Life and Work (London: Macmillan & Co. Ltd., 1955) 203.
[6]. Kazuo Tatewaki, Meiji-Seifu-to Orientaru-Banku (Meiji Government and the Oriental Bank), (Tokyo: Chuko Shinsyo, 1992), ii.
[7]. Carrington, 202.
[8]. Kipling's Japan 240
[9]. Kipling's Japan 175–6
[10]. Kipling's Japan 36
[11]. Kipling's Japan 216
[12]. Cf Palin, 172.
[13]. Kipling's Japan 166
[14]. Kipling's Japan 216
[15]. Kipling's Japan 169
[16]. Soseki Natsume, Soseki-Nikki (The Diary of Soseki), Hiraoka, Toshio, ed. (Tokyo: Iwanami Bunko, 1990), 20.
[17]. Natsume, 30–1.
[18]. Natsume, 48.
[19]. Cf. Natsume's letter to Juiti Nakane, in Akio Kobayashi, Soseki-no-"Fuyukai"(Soseki's 'Unpleasantness') (Tokyo: PHP Shinsyo, 1998), 105.
[20]. Rudyard Kipling, The Definitive Edition of Rudyard Kipling's Verse. (London: Hodder and Stoughton, 1940), 545.
[21]. Lafcadio Hearn, Life and Literature, John Erskine ed. (London: William Heinemann, 1917), 66.
[22]. Hearn, 337.
[23]. Cf. Roger Lancelyn Green, ed., Rudyard Kipling: The Critical Heritage (London: Routledge, 1971), 332.
[24]. Andrew Lycett, Rudyard Kipling (London: Weidenfeld & Nicholson, 1999), 514.
[25]. Harry Ricketts, The Unforgiving Minute: A Life of Rudyard Kipling (London: Chatto & Windus, 1999) 344.
[26]. Tonie and Valmai Holt, My Boy Jack? The Search for Kipling's Only Son. (Barnsley, South Yorkshire: Leo Cooper, 1998), 138-9.
[27]. Edmund Blunden, Thomas Hardy (London: Macmillan, 1941), 141.
[28]. It was written in 1907, not published until 1912, according to Angus Wilson, The Strange Ride of Rudyard Kipling — His Life and Works (London: Martin Secker and Warburg, 1977), 248.