Millions of children have spent happy hours with Rudyard Kipling’s The Jungle Books and Just So Stories about the land and people of India long ago. Kipling was a master storyteller.
Rudyard Kipling knew India well. He was born in Bombay on Dec. 30, 1865, when India was part of the British Empire. Rudyard and his younger sister, Alice, had an Indian nurse who told them wonderful tales about the jungle animals. These stories remained in the boy’s memory.
The Jungle Book is a collection of stories published in 1894. The stories tell about life and legends of the Indian jungle. Parts of The Jungle Book have been adapted to television, movies, the theater, and other media.
Just So Stories for Little Children was published in 1902. The stories are "origin stories". They explain how things in the natural world came about, such as the elephant's trunk and the camel's hump. Kipling drew the pictures for the original edition.
In 1907 Kipling was awarded the Nobel prize for literature. World War I brought personal tragedy when his son was killed fighting in France with the Irish Guards. More and more he withdrew from the active scene, spending the greater part of the year in his Sussex farmhouse.
Kipling died on Jan. 18, 1936, in the same month that brought the death of England’s king, George V. The writer was buried in Westminster Abbey among England’s honored sons.