The Washington herald., 1907-09-29
KIPLING And NOBEL PRIZE
He Is Really Too Rich to Need the
Benefits It Gives.
1t Is Argued That II Is the Work OF
the POvcrty-stricISen That Is
Worth the Most.

There is a gratifying rumor still un-
confirmed al the time Of writing. that
/ the Nobel Prize for literature is this
year 10 be awarded to an English
writer The name mentioned is that Of
/ Mr. Rudyard Kipling. who has, without
doubt. the widest European reputation
| of any Of our younger writers, and is
| probably the man of truest genius
among them all No one will grudge
| him his windfall if the report turns out
/ 70 be true. saws a writer in the Man
/ chester Guardian. Yet one cannot help
/ thinking that the money so munih-
/ Gently spent by Alfred Nobel on the
! encouragement of literary work "of an
/ ideaIizing tendency" might be turned 70
better account But for its proper use
trustee Of superhuman insight and
/ critical faculty would be necessary.
/ Writers who attain so great a popu-
/ larity as Mr. kipling are in little need
/ OF big financial rewards; their literary
/ agents see 10 that, and the lot of the
popular author to-day is cast in very
/ easy places But what a number of in
/ stances one can derive from a casual
acquaintance with literary history
/ where such a lump sum as the Nobel
| trustees allot each year would have
/ proved the turning point in a career.
/ One thinks OF Mr.. Meredith. toiling in
/ poverty and neglect to endOw our liter
ature with one Of its finest portrait
galleries; II is an open secret that at
/ one time he was reduced TO cultivating
/ his muse on literal oatmeal in conse-
] nF ], fp 80
! educate the public up TO his level
1 rather than descend to theirs for pot
! boiling purposes. One thinks OF Car
! lyle recording in his journal as a doc
ument for the future historian OF liter
/ ature that for twenty-three months he
! had not succeeded in earning single
penny by his pen. and that at the time
when he had already published "Sartor
/ Resartus and was meditating the
/ great epic Of the French Revolution"
| Men of less steely fiber would have
/ been turned aside from the practice of
1 their art by the hardships which these
/ twO-typical of many-had to endure
How much OF Browning's poetry
| should we possess for instance. if he
| had not been exempt by a fortunate
! heredity from the need Of earning his
/ own living? 1t is to cases like these
| that such a benefaction as that Of Mr
| Nobel should be rightly applied. not TO
| the successful authors who have al
I ready tasted all the comforts that pop
ularity can bestOw In these days of
/ million readers. But. of course. the
/ thing is impossible. No Nobel trustees
! of any generation would have endowed
/ Carlyle on the strength of "Sartor. %
/ or Mr.. Meredith on the strength OF
| Richard Feverel;" at least. If they
| had done so. they would have shown
! themselves to be a generation in front
/ Of their fellows, and that is not a quail
/ ity for which trustees are usually
elected. Only work which has passed
/ the test Of the worlds coarse thumb
and finger" scan appeal to their suf-
| frages; and probably it is right that
| this should be so, and that the sting OF
necessity should continue To goad on
/ the inventor to invent and the man OF
| science 10 make discoveries, and the
writer 70 write books which ii is Just
within the bounds of possibiIisy-teste
| Thackeray and Chapelain-that he
might not write II he were comfortably
! pensloned In advance.