Rudyard Kipling

The Jungle Book Rudyard Kipling

Publisher Marketing: The Jungle Book (1894) is a collection of stories by English author Rudyard Kipling. The stories were first published in magazines in 1893-94. The original publications contain illustrations, some by Rudyard's father, John Lockwood Kipling. Kipling was born in India and spent the first six years of his childhood there. After about ten years in England, he went back to India and worked there for about six-and-a-half years. These stories were written when Kipling lived in Vermont. There is evidence that it was written for his daughter Josephine, who died in 1899 aged six, after a rare first edition of the book with a poignant handwritten note by the author to his young daughter was discovered at the National Trust's Wimpole Hall in Cambridgeshire in 2010. The tales in the book (and also those in The Second Jungle Book which followed in 1895, and which includes five further stories about Mowgli) are fables, using animals in an anthropomorphic manner to give moral lessons. The verses of The Law of the Jungle, for example, lay down rules for the safety of individuals, families and communities. Kipling put in them nearly everything he knew or "heard or dreamed about the Indian jungle." Other readers have interpreted the work as allegories of the politics and society of the time. The best-known of them are the three stories revolving around the adventures of an abandoned "man cub" Mowgli who is raised by wolves in the Indian jungle. The most famous of the other stories are probably "Rikki-Tikki-Tavi," the story of a heroic mongoose, and "Toomai of the Elephants," the tale of a young elephant-handler. As with much of Kipling's work, each of the stories is preceded by a piece of verse, and succeeded by another. The Jungle Book, because of its moral tone, came to be used as a motivational book by the Cub Scouts, a junior element of the Scouting movement. This use of the book's universe was approved by Kipling after a direct petition of Robert Baden-Powell, founder of the Scouting movement, who had originally asked for the author's permission for the use of the Memory Game from Kim in his scheme to develop the morale and fitness of working-class youths in cities. Akela, the head wolf in The Jungle Book, has become a senior figure in the movement, the name being traditionally adopted by the leader of each Cub Scout pack. Joseph Rudyard Kipling (30 December 1865 - 18 January 1936 was an English short-story writer, poet, and novelist. He wrote tales and poems of British soldiers in India and stories for children. He was born in Bombay, in the Bombay Presidency of British India, and was taken by his family to England when he was five years old. Kipling's works of fiction include The Jungle Book (a collection of stories which includes "Rikki-Tikki-Tavi"), the Just So Stories (1902), Kim (1901), and many short stories, including "The Man Who Would Be King" (1888). His poems include "Mandalay" (1890), "Gunga Din" (1890), "The Gods of the Copybook Headings" (1919), "The White Man's Burden" (1899), and "If-" (1910). He is regarded as a major innovator in the art of the short story; his children's books are enduring classics of children's literature; and one critic described his work as exhibiting "a versatile and luminous narrative gift." Kipling was one of the most popular writers in England, in both prose and verse, in the late 19th and early 20th centuries. Henry James said: "Kipling strikes me personally as the most complete man of genius (as distinct from fine intelligence) that I have ever known." In 1907, 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. Among other honours, he was sounded out for the British Poet Laureateship and on several occasions for a knighthood, all of which he declined. Review Citations: School Library Journal 05/01/2007 pg. 100 (EAN 9780836876635, Library Binding) Hornbook Guide to Children 01/01/1991 (EAN 9781559701273, Hardcover) School Library Journal 11/01/1991 (EAN 9781559701273, Hardcover) Ingram Paperback Advance 05/01/2005 pg. 63 (EAN 9780451529756, Mass Market Paperbound) PW Notes and Reprints 05/09/2005 pg. 73 (EAN 9780763623173, Hardcover) Booklist 05/01/2005 pg. 1583 (EAN 9780763623173, Hardcover) Kirkus Review - Children 06/01/2005 pg. 639 (EAN 9780763623173, Hardcover) School Library Journal 06/01/2005 pg. 118 (EAN 9780763623173, Hardcover) Hornbook Guide to Children 07/01/2005 pg. 319 (EAN 9780763623173, Hardcover) Wilson Children's Catalog 01/01/2006 pg. 792 (EAN 9780763623173, Hardcover) Wilson Children's Catalog 01/01/2010 pg. 1178 (EAN 9780763623173, Hardcover) Hornbook Guide to Children 01/01/1992 (EAN 9780883632017, Hardcover) Wilson Children's Catalog 01/01/1991 pg. 579 (EAN 9780140432824, Paperback) Booklist 10/15/1995 pg. 404 (EAN 9780688099794, Hardcover) New York Times 12/03/1995 pg. 68 (EAN 9780688099794, Hardcover) School Library Journal 11/01/1995 pg. 112 (EAN 9780688099794, Hardcover) Hornbook Guide to Children 07/01/1995 pg. 64 (EAN 9780688099794, Hardcover) Wilson Children's Catalog 01/01/2001 pg. 547 (EAN 9780688099794, Hardcover) Wilson Children's Catalog 01/01/2006 pg. 792 (EAN 9780688099794, Hardcover) Wilson Middle/Junior Hi Catalo 01/01/2009 pg. 1067 (EAN 9780688099794, Hardcover) Wilson Children's Catalog 01/01/2010 pg. 1178 (EAN 9780688099794, Hardcover) School Library Journal 07/01/1996 pg. 85 (EAN 9780670869190, Hardcover) Hornbook Guide to Children 01/01/1996 pg. 302 (EAN 9780670869190, Hardcover) Wilson Children's Catalog 01/01/1991 pg. 579 (EAN 9780451523402, Mass Market Paperbound) Hornbook Guide to Children 07/01/2013 pg. 82 (EAN 9781402782848, Hardcover) Hornbook Guide to Children 07/01/2012 pg. 72 (EAN 9780375869617, Hardcover) Hornbook Guide to Children 07/01/2012 pg. 72 (EAN 9780375969614, Library Binding) Wilson Children's Catalog 01/01/1991 pg. 579 (EAN 9780606044073, Prebound-Sewn) Contributor Bio:  Kipling, Rudyard Nobel prize-winning writer Rudyard Kipling was born in Bombay, India, but returned with his parents to England at the age of five. Influenced by experiences in both India and England, Kipling's stories celebrate British imperialism and the experience of the British soldier in India. Amongst Kipling's best-known works are The Jungle Book, Just So Stories, and the poems "Mandalay" and "Gunga Din." Kipling was the first English-language writer to receive the Nobel prize for literature (1907) and was amongst the youngest to receive the award. Kipling died in 1936 and is interred in Poets' Corner in Westminster Abbey.