Rudyard Kipling Bio

Rudyard Kipling Biography

      Rudyard Kipling lived a full life. He received many awards and wrote many novels and poems in his lifetime.   Kipling was born in Bombay, India on December 30, 1865.   His real name is Joseph Rudyard Kipling but he just goes by Rudyard Kipling.   Although he was born in India he attended a boarding school in England and lived with foster parents. His foster mother was very abusive which greatly affected Kipling’s life. In 1881 he moved back to India to be closer to his parents. Kipling felt very sympathetic for children due to his poor childhood and expresses this through his poems and stories. Around 1883 Kipling had his first professional poetry sale.   He didn’t stop with poetry he published his first novel The Light that Failed in 1890.   Two years before he published the short story The Man Who Would Be King which later became a movie with Sean Connery in it.   In 1892 Kipling married Caroline Balasher and they moved to America where she lived till 1896.   Then they moved back to England. They had there children: two daughters; Josephine and Elsie and a son; John.   While he was in America he published the novels The Jungle Book and the Jungle Book 2. In 1901 Kipling published the novel Indian Spy Kim which was listed a one of the 1900 best English-language novels of the 20th centaury in 2001.   In 1907 he received the Nobel Prize for Literature.
      In 1915 Kipling’s only son, John, died in World War I inspiring Kipling to write the poem “My Boy Jack”.   In 1995 Kipling’s poem If was voted Britain’s favorite poem.   Kipling lived for 70 year and received lots of awards.     He passed away on January 18, 1936 in England due to a perforated duodenal ulcer.