Rudyard Kipling

Who is this?

Joseph Rudyard Kipling ( RUD-yərd; 30 December 1865 – 18 January 1936) was an English journalist, novelist, poet and short-story writer. He was born in British India, which inspired much of his work. Kipling's works of fiction include the Jungle Book duology (The Jungle Book, 1894; The Second Jungle Book, 1895), Kim (1901), the Just So Stories (1902) and many short stories, including "The Man Who Would Be King" (1888). His poems include "Mandalay" (1890), "Gunga Din" (1890), "The Gods of the Copybook Headings" (1919), "The White Man's Burden" (1899) and "If—" (1910). He is seen as an innovator in the art of the short story. His children's books are classics; one critic noted "a versatile and luminous narrative gift". Kipling in the late 19th and early 20th centuries was among the United Kingdom's most popular writers. Henry James said "Kipling strikes me personally as the most complete man of genius, as distinct from fine intelligence, that I have ever known." In 1907, he was awarded the Nobel Prize in Literature, as the first writer to receive the prize, and at 41, its youngest recipient to date. He was also sounded out for the British Poet Laureateship and several times for a knighthood, but declined both. Following his death in 1936, his ashes were interred at Poets' Corner in Westminster Abbey. Kipling's subsequent reputation has changed with the political and social climate of the age. The contrasting views of him continued for much of the 20th century. The literary critic Douglas Kerr wrote that Kipling "is still an author who can inspire passionate disagreement and his place in literary and cultural history is far from settled. But as the age of the European empires recedes, he is recognised as an incomparable, if controversial, interpreter of how empire was experienced. That, and an increasing recognition of his extraordinary narrative gifts, make him a force to be reckoned with."

Career

1. 1865
   Born
2. 1907
   Won Nobel Prize in Literature
3. 1921
   Won doctor honoris causa from the University of Paris
4. 1921
   Won honorary doctorate from the University of Strasbourg
5. 1936
   Passed away
6. 2009
   Won Lektorix
7. Member of American Academy of Arts and Sciences
8. Member of Royal Society of Literature
9. Member of freemasonry
10. Won Fellow of the Royal Society of Literature
11. Notable work: The Jungle Book
12. Notable work: Kim
13. Notable work: If—
14. Notable work: The Second Jungle Book
15. Notable work: Just So Stories

Trivia

• •Place of birth: Mumbai
• •Citizenship: United Kingdom, United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland
• •Known as: writer, poet, novelist, war correspondent
• •Spouse: Caroline Starr Balestier