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Rudyard Kipling was an English author famous for an array of works like 'Just So Stories' and 'The Jungle Book.' He received the 1907 Nobel Prize in Literature.

Kipling was one of the most popular writers in the United Kingdom, in both prose and verse, in the late 19th and early 20th centuries. In 1907, at the age of 42, he was awarded the Nobel Prize in Literature, making him the first English-language writer to receive the prize and its youngest recipient to date. He was also sounded out for the British Poet Laureateship and on several occasions for a knighthood, both of which he declined.

Kipling's works of fiction include The Jungle Book, Kim, and many short stories, including "The Man Who Would Be King". His poems include "Mandalay", "Gunga Din", "The White Man's Burden" (1899), and "If—“.

He is regarded as a major innovator in the art of the short story; his children's books are classics of children's literature, and one critic described his work as exhibiting "a versatile and luminous narrative gift".

Henry James said: "Kipling strikes me personally as the most complete man of genius, as distinct from fine intelligence, that I have ever known."

Kipling's subsequent reputation has changed per the political and social climate of the age and the resulting contrasting views about him continued for much of the 20th century.

George Orwell called him a "prophet of British imperialism". However, as the age of the European empires recedes, he is recognized as an incomparable, if controversial, interpreter of how an empire was experienced. That and increasing recognition of his extraordinary narrative gifts place him among the greats of English literature.

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