The morning news. [volume] (Savannah, Ga.) 1887-1900, 1899-05-21
The LITERARY OUTLOOK.
MIR. KIPLING'S SIDE OF HIS C0NTRo-
VERsY WITH G. T.. PUTNAm's
SONS.

ms oldest Personal Friends-His
General Dislike of Business, Con-
troversy and PubIicity-HOVv He
Manages His AGairs-soon to sail
for England.
New York. May 20-Mr. Kiplings suit
for damages against the firm of q. T.
Punam's Sons, who have issued what Is
called the "Brushwood" edition of his
works. seems 10 be undergoing a good deal
Of trjal outside Of the court that have il
Immediately in hand. l have no intention
of becoming a party 20 It myself; let
those who want TO dispute over the mat
ter do so. and welcome, to the end OF
their pleasure But inasmuch as thus far
in the discussion Mr. Ilphng himself has
not been heard from, and as l chance TO
be in the way of knowing his side of the
argument. l will venture TO make state
ment of it-quite uncontroversiahy ana
simply as an interesting piece of news.
derive my Information from the testimony
already taken in the case, only very i'm
perfect summaries of which have as yer
been published; from an examination OF
the particular works on which the con-
1FOVeTSA GEilltTSs anu tSl''iultS , AAHiAh III
OF Mr. KipHngs Oldest friends, one VINO
has known him Intimately ever since he
was a boy in India. L have therefore,
the same conviction of the accuracy OF
nv Information as if il came 90 me from
Mr. Kiphng's own lips.
To begin with, II may be said that Mr.
Iiplng dlslikes the whole controversy
extremely; and he disliked 1t as much
before it became public as he has dishked
A since. 1t is the sort OF thing that most
wearies and harnesses him. He has no rel
fish for business, and he employs busi-
ness agent, Mr.. A. +. Watt, who has al
most complete charge of his affairs He IS
always consulted, and kept more or less
informed; but contracts with publishers,
receipts of money, payments, investments
all are alike left by him, as far as pos
sibIe, to his agent Often reports on these
and kindred things over which another
man would ponder and talk half a day
he dismisses with the merest nod. De-
spite his supreme rnanliness of mind the
account his intimate friends unite In CIV
ing Of him is that he is like frank, free,
true-hearted, unaffected boy; and his at
titude toward business is a kind of youth
ful duHfulness; he will attend to it when
he must, but 1t bores him terribly. To
man of this temperament and habit,
piece of business so perplexing as law
suit could not but be most distasteful.
But, in addition to dislking business,
Mr. Kipllng dislllIes controversy. His
whole disposition is against lawsuits, or,
indeed any sort of unfriendly contest.
Nothing but some strenuous sense of duty
would ever bring him 10 deliberately face
one. Il Is the sense of duty, ! am assur-
ed, that is uring him in the present in
stance-and duty, too, not TO himself or
his family, but, as he believes, to authors
in general His reasoning is that he per-
haps is better able than some others to
bear the expense and trouble of such
suit, and that by carrying it through he
VIII make all authors more secure in their
rights and publishers and booksellers In
general less careless or reckless.
Another. respect in which the present
controversy is peculiarly distasteful 10
Mr.. Kipling is its publicity. This would
be disagreeable to him at any time, but it
Is especially so just now, for he feels that,
what with his coming to America and
his grave illness here, he has been lately
altogether too much talked about, and
that the public must soon grow sick of his
very name. The one effect of the tesgi-
monies of admiration, affection and sym
PATTY that poured in upon him from all
quarters of the world during his illness
was, as he himself has said, to make him
humble. He feels, more than ever, that
he cannot be too scrupulous as to the
character and quality of his work. Much
of that done in his earlier days. while he
was yet little more than a boy in India.
he had already condemned and hoped
never to see republished. But Just at the
moment when he is most sensitive on this
point there Is brought out, without his
consent or even any conference with him.
an edition that gathers up all sorts of
odds and ends of his early production,
and presents them with various inaccura-
cies and in a form at least calculated 10
give the public the impression that he
himself has authorized the publication.
Besides the general unwarrantableness
of the whole performance, the specific
charges that Mr.. Kipling's friends make
against the "Brushwood Edition" are
these:
First-That it is the BrushWood edition.
Their feeling is that in so naming and
advertising il, and i'm decorating the COW
ers with the device of an elephants head
which Mr.. Kipling himself had adopted fol-
a cover decoration in various authorized
issues of books of his, and fac-simile OF
his autograph, the Messrs. Putnam DELHI
erately sought 10 give, and did give, the
impression that the edition was publish
ed by his authority. SO much of this as
relates TO the name they seem TO in some
measure concede, for they have now with
drawn il and are selling the edition with.
out any name,
Second-That at The end of the volume
entitled THE Seven Seas" reproduced
with the imprint of the authorized pub
fishers. d. Appleton & Co, there have
been added two poems, THE Vampire,
and "Recessional" that were never II
that book as authorized, and one Of which
1.-The Vampire" was never published any
where by authority, and was never intend
ed for publication Both poems are credit
ed 20 the Critic, of which the Messrs
Putnam are now the publishers; but tn,
Critic acquired them, in AL probability
only through its good stout shears, an,
despite the credit to Il. the natural an,
almost unavoidable inference. from tn
manner in which they are inserted /
that they are a part of the preceding
collection, THE Seven Seas" Moreover ii
the general index to the works, prepares
and printed and inserted in the last vol
ume by the Messrs. Putnam, both poem
are set down as part of the contents o
The Seven Seas" "Recessional" as ev
erybody remembers, was called out by tn
Queens jubilee. In view of the particu
4aF ,f.H