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Rudyard Kipling
Joseph
Rudyard Kipling was born on December 30th, 1865 and died
on January 18th, 1936. He was an English author and poet, who was
born in Bombay, British India.
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Kipling
is best known for his works The Jungle Book (1894), The
Second Jungle Book (1895), Just So Stories (1902), and
Puck of Pook's Hill (1906); his novel, Kim (1901); his
poems, including Mandalay (1890),
 Gunga Din (1890),
If— (1910) and Ulster 1912 (1912); and his many short
stories, including The Man Who Would Be King (1888) and the
collections Life's Handicap (1891), The Day's Work
(1898), and Plain Tales from the Hills (1888).
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
his best works speak to a versatile and luminous narrative gift.
Kipling
was one of the most popular writers in English, in both prose and
verse, in the late 19th and early 20th centuries. The author Henry
James famously said of him: "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 he remains its
youngest-ever recipient. Among other honours, he was sounded out for
the British Poet Laureateship and on several occasions for a
knighthood, all of which he declined.
However, later in life Kipling also came to be seen (in George
Orwell's words) as a "prophet of British imperialism." Many
saw prejudice and militarism in his works, and the resulting
controversy about him continued for much of the 20th century.
According
to critic Douglas Kerr: "He 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 recognized 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."
IF you can
keep your head when all about you
Are losing theirs and blaming it on you,
If you can trust yourself when all men doubt
you,
But make allowance for their doubting too;
If you can wait and not be tired by waiting,
Or being lied about, don't deal in lies,
Or being hated, don't give way to hating,
And yet don't look too good, nor talk too wise:
If you can dream - and not make dreams your
master;
If you can think - and not make thoughts your
aim;
If you can meet with Triumph and Disaster
And treat those two impostors just the same;
If you can bear to hear the truth you've spoken
Twisted by knaves to make a trap for fools,
Or watch the things you gave your life to,
broken,
And stoop and build 'em up with worn-out tools:
If you can make one heap of all your winnings
And risk it on one turn of pitch-and-toss,
And lose, and start again at your beginnings
And never breathe a word about your loss;
If you can force your heart and nerve and sinew
To serve your turn long after they are gone,
And so hold on when there is nothing in you
Except the Will which says to them: 'Hold on!'
If you can talk with crowds and keep your
virtue,
' Or walk with Kings - nor lose the common
touch,
if neither foes nor loving friends can hurt you,
If all men count with you, but none too much;
If you can fill the unforgiving minute
With sixty seconds' worth of distance run,
Yours is the Earth and everything that's in it,
And - which is more - you'll be a Man, my son!
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