Dear David,
Parodies or perhaps, more kindly, versions of Kipling's "If –" have
been offered by many authors:
J.P. McEvoy did an "If for Girls", as did Gale Baker Staton.
Elizabeth Lincoln Otis titled her poem "An 'If' for Girls". They can
all be found on line, and their use in America on Graduation cards led
to the retitling of Kipling's original as "If for Boys", but only by
those companies producing the cards.
Examples are at:
http://blogs.modestlyyours.net/modestly_yours/2006/01/if_for_girls.html
http://evenyet.net/bestofbytes/favorite.htm#if4girls
The original verse was, to my my knowledge (and following several
previous enquiries for similar finds, I did do some research) never
produced, published or hand written by Kipling himself with the title
"If for Boys".
At the risk of causing some hurt to your enthusiastic correspondent, I
would suggest that this may be a "time capsule" only in that it
reflects a time when photocopiers and computer printers were far in
the future, and when even typewriters were fairly primitive and seen
as impersonal. In that more leisurely age, many people made copies of
well-loved poems by hand, often in a handwriting style similar to
Kipling's own. If done for a relation, they might well be personalised
with a change of title (especially if produced separately for a boy
and a girl). The copyist would see no problem in "signing" the piece,
often with a fair facsimile of Kipling's signature.
Thus, I am afraid that this is yet another "original Kipling
manuscript" which will prove to be nothing more than a well
intentioned hand copy, done many years ago, but not worth more than a
few pounds. With provenance, of course, it would be a strange and
exciting find, and with suitable proof, I would be pleased to retract
my position!
John
John Walker,
Honorary Librarian,
The Kipling Society.
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