Editing If— (section)

==Publication==
"If—" first appeared in the "Brother Square Toes" chapter of the book ''[[Rewards and Fairies]]'', a collection of Kipling's poetry and short-story fiction published in 1910. In his posthumously published autobiography, ''Something of Myself'' (1937), Kipling said that, in writing the poem, he was inspired by the character of [[Leander Starr Jameson]],<ref name=something>Kipling, Rudyard. "Something of Myself." ''Rudyard Kipling: Something of Myself and Other Autobiographical Writings''. Ed. Thomas Pinney. Cambridge: Cambridge UP, 1991. p. 111. Print.</ref> leader of the failed [[Jameson Raid]] against the [[South African Republic]] to overthrow the [[Boers|Boer]] government of [[Paul Kruger]]. The failure of that [[mercenary]] [[coup d'état]] aggravated the political tensions between the [[United Kingdom]] and the Boers, which led to the [[Second Boer War]] (1899–1902).<ref>"The New Britannica Encyclopædia", 15th Edition, volume 6, pp. 489–490.</ref><ref>{{cite web|last=Halsall|first=Paul |url=http://www.fordham.edu/halsall/mod/kipling-if.html|title=Rudyard Kipling: If |work=[[Internet History Sourcebooks Project]] |publisher=Fordham University|date=July 1998 |access-date=6 November 2011}}</ref>