Rudyard Kipling (1865-1936) was an enthusiastic proponent of British imperialism and writer of poetry, short stories and novels. He was also the first English-language author to be awarded the Nobel Prize for Literature in 1907. Born in Bombay, India, Kipling was taken by his family to England when he was five years old. These contrasting environments preserved in the author nostalgia for the Eden-like setting of India, where he recalled family and friendly local servants doting upon him, and which set the stage for his popular tales like "e;The Jungle Book"e;. Written while he was living in the lush, unspoiled countryside of Sussex in 1906, "e;Puck of Pook's Hill"e; tells a series of stories on the history of England through the voice of the Shakespearean elf, Puck. Puck appears to two children - Dan and Una - as they are playing in a meadow near their home, and recounts tales from the past 2000 years, much to the children's delight.
Rudyard Kipling was born in Bombay in 1865. He was educated in England but returned to India as an adult and worked as a journalist. There, he produced stories, sketches and poems that made him a literary celebrity when he returned to England in 1888. After their marriage, Kipling and his wife moved to Vermont, where he wrote The Jungle Book. Published in 1894, it became a children's classic all over the world. Tales of every kind, including historical and science fiction, continued to flow from his pen, including Kim (1901) and the Just So Stories (1902). From 1902 Kipling made his home in Sussex, but continued to travel widely and caught his first glimpse of warfare in South Africa, where he reported in the Boer War. Kipling was the recipient of many honorary degrees and other awards. He was the first writer to be awarded the Nobel Prize, in 1907, and in 1926 he received the Gold Medal of the royal Society of Literature. Kipling died in 1936.
