Editor's Note

Kipling's Diary for 1885 is largely the record of his work for the Civil and Military Gazette in that year, a year that saw his contributions to the newspaper greatly increased over those of the previous years. By the beginning of 1885 he had already spent more than two full years of work on the CMG under the repressive editorship of Stephen Wheeler, who disliked “creative” work and kept Kipling to a demanding routine of sub-editing: condensing and restating other men's contributions, abridging and paraphrasing documents, cutting and pasting items from other papers, translating, taking down wire-service items, and other such unrewarding exercises. Slowly, Kipling made his way into the confidence of his editor: early in 1884 he was sent on special assignment to Patiala to report the Viceroy's visit; about the same time, his first verses appeared in the paper, and he also began the series of local gossip called “A Week in Lahore.” Later in 1884 the first of his short stories appeared in the CMG. These would remain infrequent until the middle of 1886, when Wheeler left the paper and a new regime welcomed Kipling's creative work. Still, by 1885 he had become a useful and frequent contributor to, as well as a sub-editor of, the CMG. The diary for 1885 documents his work for the paper in a detail that usefully supplements the information from other sources, especially in view of the fact that none of Kipling's letters from early in 1885 appears to have survived.