Rudyard Kipling: Difference between revisions

In early 1889, ''The Pioneer'' relieved Kipling of his charge over a dispute. For his part, Kipling had been increasingly thinking about the future. He sold the rights to his six volumes of stories for £200 and a small royalty, and the ''Plain Tales'' for £50; in addition, from ''The Pioneer'', he received six-months' salary in lieu of notice.<ref name=autobio/> He decided to use this money to make his way to London, the centre of the literary universe in the British Empire. On 9 March 1889, Kipling left India, travelling first to San Francisco via Rangoon, Singapore, Hong Kong and Japan. He then travelled through the United States writing articles for ''The Pioneer'' that too were collected in ''[[From Sea to Sea and Other Sketches, Letters of Travel]]''. Starting his American travels in San Francisco, Kipling journeyed north to [[Portland, Oregon|Portland]], [[Oregon]]; on to [[Seattle, Washington|Seattle]], Washington; up into Canada, to [[Victoria, British Columbia|Victoria]] and Vancouver, British Columbia; back into the U.S. to [[Yellowstone National Park]]; down to Salt Lake City; then east to [[Omaha, Nebraska|Omaha]], [[Nebraska]] and on to Chicago, Illinois; then to [[Beaver, Pennsylvania]] on the Ohio River to visit the Hill family; from there he went to [[Chautauqua]] with Professor Hill, and later to [[Niagara]], Toronto, Washington, D.C., New York and Boston.<ref name=pinney1>Pinney, Thomas (editor). ''Letters of Rudyard Kipling, volume 1''. Macmillan and Company, London and New York.</ref> In the course of this journey he met [[Mark Twain]] in [[Elmira, New York|Elmira]], New York, and felt much awed in his presence. Kipling then crossed the [[Atlantic]], and reached Liverpool in October 1889. Soon thereafter, he made his début in the London literary world to great acclaim.<ref name=rutherford/>