Possible starting material for the article
(The Literary Digest, November 2, 1929)
http://www.unz.org/Pub/LiteraryDigest-1929nov02-00021
THE MAN WHO TURNED DOWN KIPLING
—To turn down the first efforts of a man who later becomes famous
seems to attach an unforgivable stigma. Such a victim is Mr. F. L. H.
Noble, a San Francisco editor in 1889, who refused to pubUsh Kipling's
"American Notes." Not to see the budding genius and gain lasting fame
for one's self is supposed to damn a man for his j ob. But this
particular case has had hitherto unrevealed features, now made pubhc
by "Bob" Davis, who tells the Manchester Quardian all about it: '' For
forty years Mr. F. L. H. Noble, an American editor and writer, has
suffered from the terrible stigma of 'the man who turned down.
Kiphng.' It was true that in 1889 young Kipling called at the San
Francisco Examiner's office with an article of two columns' length of
his American impressions, and asked £2 a column for it, with the
condition that it should appear without any alteration. Mr. Noble
considered that the article contained statements 'detrimental to all
concerned,' and so rejected it. Now he has confided to Mr. Davis that
his main reason for rejection was that it contained ' some rather
flippant paragraphs aimed at religion.' The article afterward appeared
in Kipling's 'American Notes' with the religious references eliminated.
"Then comes the story how Mr. Noble was not only 'the man who turned
down Kipling' but the man who first turned up Kipling in America. Some
nights later at a house he met a swarthy young man wearing thick
glasses and a heavy black mustache, who as the party broke up laid on
the table a small book in which he had written his name. This was
Kipling, and the book was the Bombay edition of 'Plain Tales from the
HiUs.' Mr. Noble read the book, recognized its value, sought out
Kipling, and arranged for the publication of the ' Tales' in The
Examiner, and so introduced Kipling to the American pubhc. He had
indeed wiped out his sin."
RD> Any guess from anyone as to what that piece might have been,
RD> other than one of the "From Sea To Sea" letters, which were
RD> syndicated in newspapers in Chicago, NY and Philadelphia, but not
RD> to my knowledge in San Francisco?
RD> Dave Richards
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