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Rudyard Kipling |
Born in Bombay, Rudyard Kipling was raised in a cruel foster home and educated to be a soldier. But he went back to India when he had a chance and became a journalist, traveling the world and writing the books and poems that made him the most popular author of his age: Gunga Din, The Jungle Book, Captains Courageous, and others.
He was the first English language writer to receive the Nobel Prize in 1907, the apotheosis of the Victorian era, author of “The White Man’s Burden”, and spokesman for the Empire. After his son was killed in World War I, though, his enthusiasm waned, and he spent the last years riding around the countryside in the back of his newest chauffeured motor car, writing little reports for the press.
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Immortal Poets: Their Lives and Verse, by Christopher Burns |