Kipling: Poems (Everyman's Library Pocket Poets)
Rudyard Kiplingwas born in Bombay, India to British parents on December 30, 1865. In 1871, Rudyard and his sister, Trix, aged three, were left to be cared for by a couple in Southsea, England. Five years passed before he saw his parents again. His sense of desertion and despair were later expressed in his story “Baa Baa, Black Sheep” (1888), in his novelThe Light that failed(1890), and his autobiography,Something of Myself(1937). As late as 1935 Kipling still spoke bitterly of the “House of Desolation” at Southsea: “I should like to burn it down and plough the place with salt.”At twelve he entered a minor public school, the United Services College at Westward Ho, North Devon. InStalkyand CO.(1899) the myopic Beetle is a self-caricature, and the days at Westward Ho are recalled with mixed feelings. At sixteen, eccentric and literary, Kipling sailed to India to become a journalist. His Indian experiences led to seven volumes of stories, includingSoldiers Three(1888) andWee Willie Winkie(1888).At twenty-four he returned to England and quickly tuned into a literary celebrity. In London he became close friends with an American, (Charles) Wolcott Balestier, with whom he collaborated on what critics called a “dime store novel.” Wolcott died suddenly in 1891, and a few weeks later Kipling married Wolcott’s sister, Caroline. The newlyweds settled in Brattleboro, Vermont, where Kipling wroteThe Jungle Book(1895), and most ofCaptains Courageous(1897). By this time Kipling’s popularity and financial success were enormous.In 1899 the Kipling’s settled in Sussex, England, where he wrote some of his best books:Kim(1901),Just So Stories(1902), andPuck of Pooks Hill(1906). In 1907 he received the Nobel Prize for literature. By the time he died, on January 18 1936, critical opinion was deeply divided about his writings, but his books continued to be read by thousands, and such unforgettable poems and stories as “Gunga Din,” “If,” “The Man Who Would Be King,” and “Rikki-Tikki-Tavi” have lived on in the consciousness of succeeding generations.Peter Washingtonis the editor of several Everyman's Library Pocket Poet anthologies, includingLove Poems,Friendship Poems, andPoems of Mourning.