Joseph Rudyard Kipling 30 December 1865 – 18 January 1936) was an English novelist, short-story writer, poet, and journalist. He was born in British India, which inspired much of his work. Kipling's works of fiction include the Jungle Book duology (The Jungle Book, 1894; The Second Jungle Book, 1895), Kim (1901), the Just So Stories (1902) 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 seen as an innovator in the art of the short story. His children's books are classics; one critic noted "a versatile and luminous narrative gift".Kipling in the late 19th and early 20th centuries was among the United Kingdom's most popular writers. Henry James said "Kipling strikes me personally as the most complete man of genius, as distinct from fine intelligence, that I have ever known."[3] In 1907, he was awarded the Nobel Prize in Literature, as the first English-language writer to receive the prize, and at 41, its youngest recipient to date. He was also sounded out for the British Poet Laureateship and several times for a knighthood, but declined both. Following his death in 1936, his ashes were interred at Poets' Corner, part of the South Transept of Westminster Abbey. Kipling's subsequent reputation has changed with the political and social climate of the age. The contrasting views of him continued for much of the 20th century. Literary critic Douglas Kerr wrote: "[Kipling] is still an author who can inspire passionate disagreement and his place in literary and cultural history is far from settled. But as the age of the European empires recedes, he is recognised as an incomparable, if controversial, interpreter of how empire was experienced. That, and an increasing recognition of his extraordinary narrative gifts, make him a force to be reckoned with."
‘Just so stories’ was published as ‘the just so stories for little children’, and is regarded among Rudyard Kipling’s best-known works for children. Kipling wrote these stories initially as bedtime stories to narrate to his first daughter, Josephine. Josephine would often insist that her father repeat these stories just as or exactly as they were, using the phrase ‘just so’. Josephine died tragically of pneumonia in 1899, and her death plunged Kipling into grief. Her phrase inspired Kipling to name this collection ‘just so stories’ when it was first published in the year 1902. This was the same year that Kipling bought a house in Sussex, where he would spend the rest of his life. Even after all these years, these stories are just as or exactly as they were. The passage of time has not diminished their popularity for young and old readers alike. Delight in these 12 delightful tales that reveal how the whale got his throat, how the Camel got his hump, how the leopard received his spots, and much more!.
