Just So Stories

Joseph Rudyard Kipling was an English novelist, short story author, poet, and journalist. He was born in British India, which influenced much of his work. Kipling's writing includes the Jungle Book duology (The Jungle Book, 1894; The Second Jungle Book, 1895), Kim (1901), the Just So Stories (1902), and other short stories, including "The Man Who Would Be King" (1888). His poetry includes "Mandalay" (1890), "Gunga Din" (1890), "The Gods of Copybook Headings" (1919), and "The White Man's Burden" (1899). He is regarded as a pioneer in the art of the short tale. His children's books are classics; one writer praised him for having "a versatile and luminous narrative gift". In the late nineteenth and early twentieth century, Kipling was one of the most popular writers in the United Kingdom. A quote from Henry James: "Kipling strikes me personally as the most complete man of genius, as distinct from fine intelligence, that I have ever known."In 1907, he received the Nobel Prize in Literature as the first English-language writer and, at 41, the youngest recipient to date. He was also considered for the position of British Poet Laureate and many knighthoods, but declined both. After his death in 1936, his ashes were deposited in Poets' Corner, which is part of Westminster Abbey's South Transept.