Rudyard Kipling

 

To start this topic with a personal connection; Kipling's literary works to which at the time I did not connect with as the author, but like many of my contemporaries was aware of the titles, his stories or short stories would bring.  For Example - 'Rikki-Tikki-Tavi' and 'The Man Who would be King', where names or titles heard in passing many-a-times by my parents, classmates or by literature commentators in some regard.  The  Nursey Rhyme "Baa Baa, Black Sheep" is a semi autobiographical short story published in 1888, The actual rhyme was written in 1744, and the only thing that survived in the collective consciousness, from the two was the Rhyme.  That being said, I had experienced a wonderful childhood in Cub/Scouts with his established archetypes he created, found enlightened with timely exposure to his work in the classroom, or witness the spectacle of his imaginations on the big & small screen in both film and animated adaptations. His most celebrated works has left an indelible imprint to generations.

Rudyard Kipling is an English Author, Born in Bombay, India, on December 30th, 1865. He was educated in England.  In 1882 he returned to India, where he joined the staff of the Civil and Military Gazette in Lahore.  His earliest tales were published in that paper.  In 1892, he married  Caroline Balestier, an American. He lived in Vermont for four years, where he wrote 'Many Inventions (1893), The Jungle Book (1894), The Second Jungle Book (1895), The Seven Seas (1896), and Captains Courageous (1897). He returned to England in 1896

In 1900, Rudyard Kipling went to South Africa to report the Boer War and served for a time as an editor of The Friend in Bloemfontein. In Kim (1901) a long discursive novel on modern India, he tried to fulfill the promise of his shorter workers.  He failed , in the opinion of many critics, but this remained his most ambitious novel.  His later writing was often criticized as propaganda for British colonialism  and as showing more sympathy for institutions than individuals.  Regardless of the social content  of his writing, however, he was recognized  as one of the most talented literary craftsmen  of his age. An international celebrity, he waas honored by the Universities of Oxford, Cambridge, Paris, and Edinburgh, and in 1907 received the Nobel prize in literature. Among his other works were Department Ditties (1886), Plain Tales from the Hills (1888), Soldiers Three (1888), Wee Willie Winkie (1888), The Phantom Rickshaw (1890), Barrack-Room Ballads (1892), Recessional and other Poems (1899)....Something of Myself (1937), He died January  18th, 1936, His Wife Caroline became custodian of is literary legacy after his death. She past away December 1939.

One of Rudyard Kipling's most acclaimed poems was 'If' (1910),  its an inspirational poem on how one should live one's life - in a way that provides advice.. The poem is curated in a way that at least one advice will be relevant to you at some point in life.  The second last line of the poem was either  conscious /unconscious, but provided inspiration to create a famous line in Scarface (1983)  "Yours is the Earth and Everything that's in it,"