Joseph Rudyard Kipling is considered one of the greatest English writers in history and is particularly renowned for his writings about India and the Raj. He celebrated the heroism of British colonial soldiers in India and Burma, and was the first Englishman to receive the Nobel Prize for Literature in 1907.
Rudyard Kipling was born December 30, 1865, in Bombay, India. The name Rudyard was taken from a lake in Staffordshire, England. At the age of six, he and his younger sister were sent back to England where they lived with separate families that took in children for hire. He returned to India at age sixteen.
Rudyard knew literary success at a young age and was able to travel. He married Carrie Balestier, an American, and moved to the United States. The Jungle Books were written in Vermont. He died January 18, 1936, in Middlesex, England during an operation.