Portrait photograph of Rudyard Kipling.
Burwash, Sussex: , 1920. Item #06200
“I Like It Very Much”
Rudyard Kipling Critiques a Poem by “The Bath Railway Poet”
A Fine Two-Page Autograph Letter Signed to Henry Chappell
With the Original Autograph Envelope and Portrait
KIPLING, Rudyard (1865–1936). Autograph letter signed, “Rudyard Kipling,” to Henry Chappell, the celebrated “Bath Railway Poet,” discussing Chappell's poem The Chaplet and suggesting a possible place of publication. Bateman's, Burwash, Sussex, February 7, 1920.
Two octavo pages, written in ink on a single folded sheet of Kipling's headed stationery, printed “BURWASH / ETCHINGHAM” and “BATEMAN'S / BURWASH / SUSSEX.” Dated in Kipling's hand “Feb. 7. 1920” and marked “Private” at the head. Signed at the conclusion “Rudyard Kipling.”
Together with the original autograph addressed envelope, addressed by Kipling to: “Henry Chappell Esq. G.W. Ry. Station Bath Somerset” and initialed by him “RK” at lower left.
Mounted, framed and glazed, double-sided, together with a photographic portrait of Kipling and an engraved brass plaque “RUDYARD KIPLING 1865–1936 Author.” Photograph approximately 9 1/2 x 7 1/2 inches (241 x 190 mm.). Overall frame size 16 3/4 x 20 5/8 inches (425 x 524 mm.).
A particularly appealing literary letter from Rudyard Kipling to fellow poet Henry Chappell, offering both praise and criticism of Chappell's verse and practical advice concerning its publication.
Kipling writes thanking Chappell for sending him his poem The Chaplet. He tells him that he likes the poem “very much,” though with the characteristically forthright reservation “barring ‘hauteur’ in the first verse.” He then turns from literary criticism to the practical question of publication, telling Chappell: “I don't know exactly what would be a good place to publish it in just now — unless perhaps you tried the Express.”
The recommendation was especially appropriate. Chappell had achieved national recognition through the publication in the Daily Express of his patriotic poem The Day shortly after the outbreak of the First World War. Contemporary accounts identify Chappell as a railway porter at Bath and record that The Day appeared in the Daily Express on August 22, 1914.
The second page concludes with Kipling's warm good wishes and his full autograph signature, “Rudyard Kipling.”
The letter is considerably more interesting than a routine Kipling note. It reveals Kipling acting as a fellow craftsman and informal literary adviser: reading Chappell's poem closely enough to object to a particular word in its opening verse, nevertheless praising the work as a whole, and suggesting where the younger poet might seek publication.
Henry CHAPPELL (1874-1937) was a poet and railwayman who became widely known as “The Bath Railway Poet.” Working as a railway porter at Bath, he attracted widespread attention following the appearance of The Day in the Daily Express in August 1914. The poem was subsequently reproduced and circulated widely, establishing Chappell's reputation well beyond the railway community.
The present letter provides an appealing connection between two very different literary careers: Kipling, Nobel laureate and one of the most famous English writers of his generation, and Chappell, the working railwayman whose wartime verse had unexpectedly brought him national attention.
Joseph Rudyard KIPLING (1865-1936) was born in Bombay and became one of the most celebrated English writers of the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. His works include The Jungle Book (1894), The Second Jungle Book (1895), Kim (1901), and Just So Stories for Little Children (1902), as well as such celebrated poems as “Mandalay,” “Gunga Din,” “Recessional,” and “If -.” In 1907 he became the first English-language writer to receive the Nobel Prize in Literature.
Price: $2,500.00