By Nina Sovich
RUDYARD KIPLING arrived in Brattleboro, Vt., hassled, broke and
looking for a little peace and quiet. The Japanese bank in which he
had kept all his money had collapsed in the early stages of the
Panic of 1893. His wife, Carrie, was pregnant with their first
child. And while a famous writer at that point, he had no novel
with the publisher that could lift their fortunes.
The banking crisis forced the British novelist and his Yankee
wife to abandon their round-the-world honeymoon to return to
Vermont and their only asset -- 10 hilly acres above Brattleboro,
where Carrie's family had a home. They stayed in a small cottage.
Snow up to the windows, wind blowing in through the cracks, wife
banging on the boiler, 26-year-old Kipling sat down to write. In
the next four years, he produced "The Jungle Book," "The Just So"
stories and the first draft of "Kim."
"He had zero money and a family," said Christopher Benfey, the
author of "If: The Untold Story of Kipling's American Years." "The
wolf was at the door. That's a great way for some people to
write."
At the time, Brattleboro was a posh spa town surrounded by poor
farms. The world was entering a great depression, and Vermont was
as good a place as any to catch your breath. The mountains are tall
hills. The winters are cold but not Arctic. It was -- and still is
-- the kind of place where you'd come home from a hike covered in
frost with red cheeks and blustery hair. In the summer, the valleys
reverberate with the sounds of frogs and woodpeckers.
After a year of pandemic living in Washington, D.C., my life had
begun to feel like one endless Sunday afternoon. We rarely went
outside. My husband and I were always on Zoom. The children were
wilting under the glare of online learning, and there was no sign
schools would open in spring. The idea of leaving behind the
confining city for the inviting countryside tugged at me. "We
should move to Vermont," I told my husband. "Something has got to
give."
We drove to Vermont in February, quarantined for a week and then
took the Covid-19 PCR tests required by the state for visitors.
Many stores and restaurants were still closed, but schools were
open five days a week and in person. A small private school called
the Grammar School in Putney agreed to take the children.
We needed a house for six months and a comfortable one since
both my husband and I would work from home. Kipling did too, and
once he had enough money from selling his work, he began to build.
He brought an architect up from New York who designed a house in
the American shingle style -- imagine a place Teddy Roosevelt would
summer in. The house was dubbed Naulakha, named after a book
Kipling wrote with a friend about an Indian jewel. It looked like a
green houseboat resting on the crest of a wave. Inside, it was all
dark wood, huge windows and oriental carpets. There was a terrace
for tea, a sunroom for taking in the stunning view, and two offices
for Rudyard to write and Carrie to manage correspondence and bills.
The house looks much the same now, which makes it, weirdly enough,
the perfect place for a gig economy worker to wait out the
pandemic. Even more so since it's available for vacation
rentals.
"We want people to live history and enjoy history, but we are
also caretakers," said Susan McMahon, the executive director of
Landmark Trust USA, which manages Naulakha. Concerned that we'd
make poor caretakers -- with our labradoodle, two kids under 13 and
our love of eating toast in bed -- we opted to rent another
Landmark Trust home down the road. Dutton Farm, built in 1844, sits
across from a 200-year-old apple orchard. Naulakha is just over the
crest. In the cold spring evenings, when we walked the hills, we
saw it lit up like a supertanker passing through a canal.
"Kipling knew from the start that life can turn on a dime," said
Mr. Benfey, noting that Kipling had a traumatic childhood. "He had
a terrible sense of abandonment when his parents left him in
England [and returned to India]. Had it in Japan when he discovered
he had lost all his money. The world is a dangerous place, but in
Vermont there is a wonderful world of cozy protection and
safety."
Kipling mostly kept to himself while in Vermont, noted Ms.
MacMahon, who added that "Kipling loved children but didn't love
adults." But he did have some famous visitors. Mark Twain stopped
by as did Arthur Conan Doyle. Kipling, who was a nut for golf,
played on snowy hillsides with the Sherlock Holmes creator. When
the house became too quiet, Rudyard and his wife took a carriage
into town to get a drink at the city's grand Brooks House hotel.
Main street would have been a hive of commerce and prosperity.
Today Brattleboro is a hodgepodge of architectural styles
unified by a gentle hippy vibe. Main Street, which is a national
landmark, is still mostly two- and three- story brick buildings
with granite trim and cast iron balustrades that Kipling would have
recognized. The stores are just now reopening after hibernating
through the Covid winter. One can spend a pleasant Saturday morning
first getting a cappuccino at Mocha Joe's, then poking around
vintage-clothing shops, little art stores and secondhand
booksellers. Small luxuries abound. For Easter, I bought gorgeous
tall pink lilies at George J. Brooks flower shop. The Brattleboro
Co-op is just down the hill, where you can spend $21 on a lovingly
raised chicken.
Kipling left Vermont in 1896 after a public dispute with his
brother-in-law. Soon after he left he wrote "White Man's Burden,"
an indefensible defense of colonialism. These days, he is widely
criticized for his atavistic views on race and gender. Yet,
rereading "The Jungle Book" and "Kim" in our Vermont cocoon, I
couldn't help but be transported. We see a brilliant man at his
creative zenith, warmly ensconced in domestic life and writing for
the children he adored. Vermont for him, and for us, became the
perfect place to let his mind wander and his imagination run
free.
INK SPOTS
These four former homes of famous writers -- now all stylish
vacations rentals -- have stories to tell
A Poetic Palazzo
On the Grand Canal in Venice sits Ducissa, the villa of Italian
nationalist poet Gabriele d'Annunzio, who whooped it up there from
1914 to 1918. A stroll away from St. Mark's Square, the
light-filled palazzo has vastly changed since the rascally writer
wooed actress Eleanora Duse: A makeover added modern amenities but
didn't disrupt the glorious south-facing views, so visitors can
watch gondolas glide by while lounging in the plush interiors, the
garden or on the roof terrace. From $4,000 per night, 2-night
minimum stay, globalcommunitytravel.com
Come Fly Away
"A wild rocky romantic island it is too," wrote "Peter Pan"
creator J.M. Barrie in a letter about the Neverland-like locale of
the 18th-century Eilean Shona House. In 1920, Barrie rented the
house, a three-hour drive from Inverness on the west coast of
Scotland, for the summer. There, he worked on both the screenplay
of his children's classic and the ghost story "Mary Rose." Today,
it's more luxurious than rough-and-ready: The grand, eclectically
furnished three-story home has a house chef and a host to arrange
hiking, kayaking or clay pigeon shooting activities. If you're
there to finish your own opus, retreat to one of the nine rustic
cottages on the grounds. Or participate in a writing workshop (the
next one led by English novelist Raffaella Barker happens in
October). From $11,667 for a 3-night, fully catered stay at the
house for up to 16 guests, eileanshona.com
Good Penmanship
This historic 1920s cottage in the California coastal town of
Pacific Grove belonged to novelist John Steinbeck, who used it as a
writing studio in the early '40s. Avid fans (one eloped there,
another had a Steinbeck tattoo) of the "East of Eden" author book
the cozy one-bedroom house situated close to Cannery Row. The
home's Airbnb hosts, Kevin and Vicky Delaney, said many aspiring
writers come here for inspiration and respite, but they recommend
plenty of break-taking, to kayak in the bay or toast the "Grapes of
Wrath" writer with a Sonoma County Sancerre. $75 a night; 30-day
minimum stay, airbnb.com
Bath Time!
This chic two-story flat has the good bones of the kitchen and
scullery of 4 Sydney Place, the house where Jane Austen and her
family lived in Bath in the early 1800s. "Nobody ripped out the
paneling, flagstones, or the fireplaces," so the character remains,
said owner Maxwell Lamb, who modernized the interior and added
furnishings that reflect a "British multicultural mélange gathered
from the flea markets of the world." The residence with its
writer's study faces Holburne Museum and Sydney Pleasure Gardens.
From $215 a night in summer, airbnb.com
-- Donna Bulseco
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