Kipling the American

A TNR review of a new edition of Kipling’s poetry includes this unexpected information:

Kipling wrote The Jungle Books , Captains Courageous ,and many of his most familiar poems on the crest of a hillside overlooking the Connecticut River, with a view across the river valley of Mount Monadnock ‘like a gigantic thumbnail,’ Kipling wrote, ‘pointing heavenward.’ It is startling to learn that Kipling, who was born in Bombay and married a young woman from Brattleboro, hoped to remain in the United States. Over the years, he would presumably have become more and more of an American writerEnglish friends marveled at his American accentjust as the Polish writer Joseph Conrad and the American writer Henry James (who gave the bride away at Kiplings wedding) became increasingly English in theirown adopted country.”