Dear Dr Cowan

 

I have found only one passing mention of Scott in A Book of Words. The speech that Kipling made on "Some Aspects of Travel" to the Royal Geographical Society on 17 Februay 1914 contains the following phrase in the last paragraph:

 

"There will arise—they are shaping themselves even now—risks to be met as cruel as any that Hudson or Scott faced; dreams as world-wide as Columbus or Cecil Rhodes dreamed, to be made good or to die for;"

 

There is nothing that I can see mentioning Shackleton or the Antarctic.

 

In the back numbers of the Journal there is of course your own March 1985 Letter to the Editor, and the article by Mrs T. Schreiber in the September 2003 issue on "Shackleton and Kipling". I think that the interest in the Shackleton / Kipling relationship flowed from the explorer to the writer rather than vice versa.

There is a  pastiche of "If—" in the National Maritime Museum, Greenwich, which was handwritten by Shackleton on a piece of cardboard at Madeira in 1921 and signed by (some) of his officers on the Quest expedition together with other acquaintances.

 

Yours sincerely

 

David Page

----- Original Message ----
From: John Radcliffe <[log in to unmask]>
To: [log in to unmask]
Sent: Wednesday, 19 December, 2007 9:53:59 AM
Subject: Kipling and the Antarctic