ALS, two pages, 4.5 x 7, Allan Royal Mail Line letterhead, October 25, 1907. Kipling writes to Mr. Nicoll at the Canadian Pacific Railway Company. In full: “We are going down the river in what looks as if it would turn to thick weather. I fancy the Virginian has got something like a cockroach leg in one of her turbine casings for she’s making slow time of it. There were two maps—one a polar projection and one a C.P.R. transcontinental one—which we left behind in our own dear ‘Amy Dalton.’ If we don’t have ’em nobody in England will believe what we did and what was done for us. Will you please send them to us. I want to have ’em framed and dated when I get them and I want ’em for reference when I write the amazing tale. No words of ours can thank you for all you did in our little saunter of 6,000 miles, so I won’t try. Anything you can send me bearing on the land policy of your line (settlers etc. markets etc.) will be of use to us in South Africa where I hope to go in mid December. Maybe we’ll make a country of that subcontinent! With all our best wishes to you and yours. (It is pleasant to be meeting one’s daughter again)....” Kipling wrote about his Canadian trip in his Letters to the Family (1907) and Letters of Travel (1892–1913), though he made no mention of the leg of his return on the St. Lawrence River. The letter is reproduced in the Kipling Journal for December 2002, a copy of which is included. In very good condition, with complete separations at horizontal folds (archivally repaired from reverse), pinholes to blank top margins, and a few scattered wrinkles, tiny edge chips, and ink spots. The writing is dark and clear throughout, and the signature is unaffected. R&R COA.
