Editing Rudyard Kipling (section)

{{Short description|English writer and poet (1865–1936)}}
{{Redirect|Kipling}}
{{Use British English|date=August 2016}}
{{Use dmy dates|date=June 2023}}
{{Infobox writer
| name             = Rudyard Kipling<!-- do not add image icons such as Nobel Prize, see [[:Template:Infobox writer]] -->
| honorific_suffix = {{post-nominals|size=100|FRSL|country=GBR}}
| image            = Rudyard Kipling (portrait).jpg
| caption          = Kipling in 1895
| birth_name       = Joseph Rudyard Kipling
| birth_date       = {{Birth date|df=y|1865|12|30}}
| birth_place      = [[Bombay]], [[Bombay Presidency]], [[British Raj|British India]]
| death_date       = {{Death date and age|df=y|1936|1|18|1865|12|30}}
| death_place      = [[Fitzrovia]], London, England
| resting_place    = [[Poets' Corner]], [[Westminster Abbey]]
| occupation       = {{cslist|Short-story writer|novelist|poet|journalist}}
| genre            = {{hlist|[[Short story]]|[[novel]]|[[children's literature]]|[[poetry]]|[[travel]] [[literature]]|[[science fiction]]}}
| notableworks     = {{cslist|''[[The Jungle Book]]''|''[[Just So Stories]]''|''[[Kim (novel)|Kim]]''|''[[Captains Courageous]]''|"[[If—]]"|"[[Gunga Din]]"|"[[Mandalay (poem)|Mandalay]]"|"[[The White Man's Burden]]"}}
| spouse           = {{marriage|[[Caroline Starr Balestier Kipling|Caroline Starr Balestier]]|18 January 1892}}
| children         = 3, including [[Elsie Bambridge|Elsie]] and [[John Kipling|John]]
| parents          = {{ubl|[[John Lockwood Kipling]]|[[Alice Kipling|Alice MacDonald]]}}
| awards           = {{awards|[[Nobel Prize in Literature]]|1907}}<!-- do not add image icons such as Nobel Prize, see [[:Template:Infobox writer]] -->
| nationality      = <!-- use only when necessary per [[WP:INFONAT]] -->
| signature        = Rudyard Kipling signature.svg
}}

'''Joseph Rudyard Kipling''' ({{IPAc-en|'|r|ʌ|d|j|ər|d}} {{respell|RUD|yərd}}; 30 December 1865 – 18 January 1936)<ref name="thetimes">''[[The Times]]'', (London) 18 January 1936, p. 12.</ref> was an English  journalist, novelist, poet, and short-story writer. He was born in [[British Raj|British India]], which inspired much of his work.

Kipling's works of fiction include the ''Jungle Book'' [[-logy|duology]] (''[[The Jungle Book]]'', 1894; ''[[The Second Jungle Book]]'', 1895), ''[[Kim (novel)|Kim]]'' (1901), the ''[[Just So Stories]]'' (1902) and many short stories, including "[[The Man Who Would Be King]]" (1888).<ref>[http://www.kipling.org.uk/rg_wouldbeking_notes.htm "The Man who would be King"] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20130520115440/http://www.kipling.org.uk/rg_wouldbeking_notes.htm |date=20 May 2013 }}. Notes on the text by John McGivering. kiplingsociety.co.uk.</ref> His poems include "[[Mandalay (poem)|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.<ref name="rutherford">Rutherford, Andrew (1987). General Preface to the Editions of Rudyard Kipling, in "Puck of Pook's Hill and Rewards and Fairies", by Rudyard Kipling. Oxford University Press. {{ISBN|0-19-282575-5}}</ref> His children's books are classics; one critic noted "a versatile and luminous narrative gift".<ref name="plainsintro">Rutherford, Andrew (1987). ''Introduction to the Oxford World's Classics edition of 'Plain Tales from the Hills', by Rudyard Kipling''. Oxford University Press. {{ISBN|0-19-281652-7}}</ref><ref>[[James Joyce]] considered [[Tolstoy]], Kipling and [[D'Annunzio]] the "three writers of the nineteenth century who had the greatest natural talents", but that they "did not fulfill that promise". He also noted their "semi-fanatic ideas about religion, or about patriotism". Diary of David Fleischman, 21 July 1938, quoted in ''[[James Joyce (biography)|James Joyce]]'' by [[Richard Ellmann]], p. 661, Oxford University Press (1983) {{ISBN|0-19-281465-6}}</ref>

Kipling in the late 19th and early 20th centuries was among the United Kingdom's most popular writers.<ref name="rutherford" /> [[Henry James]] said "Kipling strikes me personally as the most complete man of genius, as distinct from fine intelligence, that I have ever known."<ref name="rutherford" /> 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.<ref name="nobel">{{cite web |last=Alfred Nobel Foundation |url=http://nobelprize.org/contact/faq/index.html#3b |title=Who is the youngest ever to receive a Nobel Prize, and who is the oldest? |page=409 |publisher=Nobelprize.com |access-date=30 September 2006 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20060925202706/http://nobelprize.org/contact/faq/index.html#3b |archive-date=25 September 2006}}</ref> He was also sounded out for the [[Poet Laureate of the United Kingdom|British Poet Laureate]]ship and several times for a [[Orders, decorations, and medals of the United Kingdom#Knighthood|knighthood]], but declined both.<ref name="birkenhead">[[Frederick Smith, 2nd Earl of Birkenhead|Birkenhead, Lord]] (1978). ''Rudyard Kipling'', Appendix B, "Honours and Awards". Weidenfeld & Nicolson, London; Random House Inc., New York.</ref> 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.<ref name="lewis">Lewis, Lisa (1995). ''Introduction to the Oxford World"s Classics edition of "Just So Stories", by Rudyard Kipling''. Oxford University Press, pp. xv–xlii. {{ISBN|0-19-282276-4}}</ref><ref name="quigley">Quigley, Isabel (1987). ''Introduction to the Oxford World's Classics edition of "The Complete Stalky & Co.", by Rudyard Kipling''. Oxford University Press, pp. xiii–xxviii. {{ISBN|0-19-281660-8}}</ref> The contrasting views of him continued for much of the 20th century.<ref name="said">Said, Edward (1993). ''Culture and Imperialism''. London: Chatto & Windus, p. 196. {{ISBN|0-679-75054-1}}.</ref><ref name="sandison">Sandison, Alan (1987). ''Introduction to the Oxford World's Classics edition of ''Kim'', by Rudyard Kipling''. Oxford University Press. pp. xiii–xxx. {{ISBN|0-19-281674-8}}</ref> 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."<ref name="kerr">Douglas Kerr, University of Hong Kong (30 May 2002). [http://www.litencyc.com/php/speople.php?rec=true&UID=4913 "Rudyard Kipling."] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190726110730/https://www.litencyc.com/php/speople.php?rec=true&UID=4913 |date=26 July 2019 }} ''The Literary Encyclopedia''. The Literary Dictionary Company. 26 September 2006.</ref>