Rudyard Kipling
1865–1936

Rudyard Kipling was born in Bombay on 30 December 1865, the son of John Lockwood Kipling, C.I.E. (1875–93), principal in 1875‐93 of the School of Art at Lahore, and author of Beast and Man in India (1891). Rudyard was educated in England, but returned in 1880 to India, where he began to contribute verses, tales and articles to Indian journals, making his literary debut in Echoes (1884); but it was his Department Ditties (1886), Plain Tales from the Hills (1888), and Soldiers Three (1889) that made him well known in England; of a sudden he sprang into the front rank of popular favourites. There followed close The Story of the Gadsbys, In Black and White, Under the Deodars, Wee Willie Winkie, and The Phantom Rickshaw. The City of Dreadful Night (1891) illustrates certain aspects of Calcutta. More ambitious, though hardly so successful, was The Light that Failed (1891), Barrack-Room Ballads (1892) were amongst his most brilliant successes; The Naulakha, a Story of East and West (1892), was produced in conjunction with the author-publisher, Wolcott Balestier (1863–91). Life’s Handicap (1891), Many Inventions (1893), and The Day’s Work (1899) are other collections of short tales. The two Jungle Books appeared in 1894–95; in 1896 the poems The Seven Seas; in 1897 Captain Courageous; in 1899 Stalkey and Co; and in 1901 Kim. The Absent-Minded Beggar (1900) and the &rlsquo;Recessional Hymn’ were oddly unlike. Later works include Just So Stories (1902), Five Nations, Puck of Pook’s Hill,, Rewards and Fairies, Something of Myself (1937). He died 18th January 1936.