Author, journalist, poet, writer Rudyard Kipling Author, journalist, poet, writer

Childhood & Early Life Joseph Rudyard Kipling was born on 30 December 1865 in Bombay (now Mumbai), then under British India. His parents named him after the Rudyard Lake in Staffordshire, where they had met for the first time. Rudyard had a sister, also named Alice, three years junior to him. Like most other British children in India, they spent the greater part of the day with Indian nannies and servants, listening to the unforgettable stories they told in their native tongue and exploring local markets with them. As a result, Rudyard became more proficient in their language than in English. But all these changed abruptly in 1871, when both the siblings were sent to live in a foster home in England to be educated under the British system.

Young Rudyard and his sister

Childhood & Early Life He not only faced cruelty and neglect at the hands of Mrs. Holloway, but every night she cross-examined him on his day’s activities and to save himself, he started telling lies. Later, he jokingly said, “this, I presume, is the foundation of my literary effort". By 1876, eleven-year-old Kipling was almost on the verge of a nervous breakdown. Fortunately his mother was informed about this and in April 1877, she arrived in England to take away her children from the foster home. Much later in 1888, he wrote about his ordeal in “Baa Baa Black Sheep.” On the completion of his schooling, he returned to India sometime in October 1882. That was because he was neither academically bright enough to get scholarships, nor could his parents afford university education.

Mother and nanny Rudyard Kipling

Back to India Immediately on his arrival to Bombay, Rudyard Kipling found his childhood memories rushing back. On moving around among the familiar sights and sounds, native words, whose meanings he did not know, began to tumble out of his mouth. In 1886, he had his first work, ‘Departmental Ditties’, a book of witty verses, published. Concurrently, he continued to write short stories, among which, at least thirty-nine were published in the Gazette between November 1886 and June 1887. Also in 1888, he had six other collections of short stories published. They were ‘Soldiers Three’, ‘The Story of the Gadsbys’, ‘In Black and White’, ‘Under the Deodars’, ‘The Phantom Rickshaw’, and ‘Wee Willie Winkie’. In all, they contained forty one stories, some of which were quite long.

Returning to the West On 9 March, 1889, Rudyard Kipling set out for England. Traveling via Singapore and Japan, he first reached San Francisco and thereafter traveled throughout the United States, meeting among others, Mark Twain. Finally he reached Liverpool in October 1889. On reaching England, he found that his reputation had preceded him and he was already accepted as a brilliant author. Shortly, his stories began to appear in different magazines.

Returning to the West In early 1892, Kipling married Balestier’s sister, Carrie, and traveled first to the USA and then to Japan for their honeymoon. Eventually they returned to the United States and set up their home in Vermont. It was while living there, that he first got the inspiration of writing a story about a boy called Mowgli and his animal friends. Later he wrote a series of stories on the same theme, publishing them as ‘The Jungle Book’ in 1894.

Returning to the West Kipling enjoyed his life in Vermont, but because of a family dispute, they left USA in July 1896. On reaching England, he set up their home in Rottingdean, Sussex and continued to write. In 1897, he published ‘Captains Courageous’, in which he had drawn on his experiences in New England. This was also the year when he composed ‘Recessional’ on the occasion of Queen Victoria’s diamond jubilee. In the same year, he also wrote another of his famous poems, ‘The White Man’s Burden,’ but he published it two year later in 1899, modifying it a bit to glorify American expansion after the Spanish–American War. These two poems created great controversy as they were seen as harboring imperialism.

Returning to the West In 1900s Kipling became involved in politics, making appeals on various issues on both sides of the Atlantic. During the First World War, he enthusiastically wrote pamphlets and poems, supporting the UK’s war effort and made sure his son John was recruited in the army despite having short eye sight. In 1915, John went missing, never to be found. Kipling expressed his grief in his poem ‘My Boy Jack’ (1916). After the war he joined the Imperial War Graves Commission and described his experience in a moving story called ‘Gardener’. Kipling continued to write until the early 1930s, albeit at a slower pace. ‘Tales of India: the Windermere Series’ published in 1935, is probably the last publication during his lifetime. His autobiography, ‘Something of Myself‘, was published posthumously in 1937.

Photos Rudyard Kipling Rudyard Kipling In military uniform In the old years Rudyard Kipling After World War I

Awards & Achievements In 1907, Rudyard Kipling received the Nobel Prize in literature “in consideration of the power of observation, originality of imagination, virility of ideas and remarkable talent for narration which characterize the creations of this world-famous author". In 1926, he received the Gold Medal of the Royal Society of Literature.

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