Editing Rudyard Kipling (section)

====Life in New England====
[[File:Caroline Starr Balestier, Mrs Rudyard Kipling (1862-1939).jpg|thumb|upright|Portrait of Kipling's wife, Caroline Starr Balestier, by his cousin Sir [[Philip Burne-Jones]]]]
The writing life in ''Naulakha'' was occasionally interrupted by visitors, including [[John Lockwood Kipling|his father]], who visited soon after his retirement in 1893,<ref name="gilmour" /> and the British writer [[Arthur Conan Doyle]], who brought his golf clubs, stayed for two days, and gave Kipling an extended golf lesson.<ref name="mallett">Mallet, Phillip (2003). ''Rudyard Kipling: A Literary Life''. Palgrave Macmillan, New York. {{ISBN|0-333-55721-2}}</ref><ref name="ricketts">Ricketts, Harry (1999). ''Rudyard Kipling: A life''. Carroll and Graf Publishers Inc., New York. {{ISBN|0-7867-0711-9}}</ref> Kipling seemed to take to golf, occasionally practising with the local [[Congregational]] minister and even playing with red-painted balls when the ground was covered in snow.<ref name="carrington">[[C. E. Carrington|Carrington, C.E.]] ([http://www.firstworldwar.com/poetsandprose/carrington.htm Charles Edmund] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20130813075823/http://firstworldwar.com/poetsandprose/carrington.htm |date=13 August 2013 }}) (1955). ''Rudyard Kipling: His Life and Work''. Macmillan & Co.</ref><ref name="ricketts" /> However, winter golf was "not altogether a success because there were no limits to a drive; the ball might skid {{convert|2|mi|km|spell=in}} down the long slope to [[Connecticut river]]."<ref name="carrington" />

Kipling loved the outdoors,<ref name="gilmour" /> not least of whose marvels in [[Vermont]] was the turning of the leaves each fall. He described this moment in a letter: "A little [[maple]] began it, flaming blood-red of a sudden where he stood against the dark green of a pine-belt. Next morning there was an answering signal from the swamp where the [[sumac]]s grow. Three days later, the hill-sides as fast as the eye could range were afire, and the roads paved, with crimson and gold. Then a wet wind blew, and ruined all the uniforms of that gorgeous army; and the [[oak]]s, who had held themselves in reserve, buckled on their dull and bronzed [[cuirass]]es and stood it out stiffly to the last blown leaf, till nothing remained but pencil-shadings of bare boughs, and one could see into the most private heart of the woods."<ref>Kipling, Rudyard (1920). ''Letters of Travel (1892–1920)''. Macmillan & Co.</ref>

[[File:Joseph Rudyard Kipling, Vanity Fair, 1894-06-07.jpg|thumb|upright|left|Caricature of Kipling in the London magazine ''[[Vanity Fair (British magazine)|Vanity Fair]]'', 7 June 1894]]
In February 1896, [[Elsie Kipling]] was born, the couple's second daughter. By this time, according to several biographers, their marital relationship was no longer light-hearted and spontaneous.<ref name="carrie">[[Nicolson, Adam]] (2001). ''Carrie Kipling 1862–1939: The Hated Wife''. Faber & Faber, London. {{ISBN|0-571-20835-5}}</ref> Although they would always remain loyal to each other, they seemed now to have fallen into set roles.<ref name="gilmour" /> In a letter to a friend who had become engaged around this time, the 30‑year‑old Kipling offered this sombre counsel: marriage principally taught "the tougher virtues – such as humility, restraint, order, and forethought."<ref name="pinney">Pinney, Thomas (editor). ''Letters of Rudyard Kipling, volume 2''. Macmillan & Co.</ref> Later in the same year, he temporarily taught at [[Bishop's College School]] in [[Quebec]], [[Canada]].<ref>Bliss Carman, et al., eds. (1904). ''The World's Best Poetry'', Volume I. "Of Home: of Friendship".</ref>

[[File:Naulakha jsephne loggia.jpg|thumb|upright|The Kiplings' first daughter Josephine, 1895. She died of pneumonia in 1899 aged 7.]]
The Kiplings loved life in Vermont and might have lived out their lives there, were it not for two incidents – one of global politics, the other of family discord. By the early 1890s, the United Kingdom and [[Venezuela]] were in a border dispute involving [[British Guiana]]. The U.S. had made several offers to arbitrate, but in 1895, the new American Secretary of State [[Richard Olney]] upped the ante by arguing for the American "right" to arbitrate on grounds of sovereignty on the continent (see the [[Olney interpretation]] as an extension of the [[Monroe Doctrine]]).<ref name="gilmour" /> This raised hackles in Britain, and the situation grew into a major [[United Kingdom–United States relations#Venezuelan and Alaska border disputes|Anglo-American crisis]], with talk of war on both sides.

Although the crisis eased into greater United States–British co-operation, Kipling was bewildered by what he felt was persistent anti-British sentiment in the U.S., especially in the press.<ref name="gilmour" /> He wrote in a letter that it felt like being "aimed at with a decanter across a friendly dinner table."<ref name="pinney" /> By January 1896, he had decided<ref name="carrington" /> to end his family's "good wholesome life" in the U.S. and seek their fortunes elsewhere.

A family dispute became the final straw. For some time, relations between Carrie and her brother Beatty Balestier had been strained, owing to his drinking and insolvency. In May 1896, an inebriated Beatty encountered Kipling on the street and threatened him with physical harm.<ref name="gilmour" /> The incident led to Beatty's eventual arrest, but in the subsequent hearing and the resulting publicity, Kipling's privacy was destroyed, and he was left feeling miserable and exhausted. In July 1896, a week before the hearing was to resume, the Kiplings packed their belongings, left the United States and returned to England.<ref name="carrington" />