Rudyard Kipling was a journalist and one of the most famous English authors and poets during the nineteenth and twentieth century. He was best known for his short stories and poems set in India during the period of British rule over India.
He was the first English writer to be awarded a Nobel Prize in 1907 for his powerful observation, remarkable talent of narration and imagination. He was also nominated several times for poet Laureateship and knighthood but he declined both.
A Short Biography of Rudyard Kipling
Rudyard Kipling was born on the 30th of December 1865 in Bombay, India. His father, John Lockwood Kipling, was a sculpture and pottery designer and a professor at Sir Jamsetjee Jeejebhoy School of Art. He was an Anglo-Indian who had a British origin but was born in India.
In 1878, Rudyard Kipling was sent to England for education. He came back to Lahore, India in 1882 where he became a newspaper editor for the Civil and Military Gazette. In 1887 he moved to the Allahabad Pioneer, a newspaper that gave him more liberty in his writings.
In 1889, Rudyard Kipling returned to England and there he found that his stories had got him great fame. It made him a brilliant new author. He was welcomed among the circles of leading authors and literary circles. During his time there, he wrote some of his best poems such as A Ballad of East and West, Mandalay and The English Flag.
Though his first novel The Light that Failed was not successful, he replaced Alfred Lord Tennyson as the most accepted and popular English author when his stories collection Life’s Handicap and the collection of his poems Barrackroom Ballads were published.
In 1892, he married Caroline Balestier, the sister of an American friend and settled in the United States. During this time he wrote some of his best works such as Many Inventions, The Jungle Book, The Second Jungle Book, The Seven Seas and Captains Courageous which not only made him a famous author but also earned him riches.
In 1907, he became the first English author to be awarded a Nobel Prize in literature. He died on the 18th of January 1936. He is buried in Westminster Abbey, in London England.
His autobiography, Something of Myself was written in 1937.
Rudyard Kipling’s Writing Style
Among his writings include fiction, non-fiction and poetry. He is admired worldwide both for his prose and verse form of writing. His writings are a result of careful observation of the realities of life rather than his own imagination.
It was during his seven years of job as an editor for a newspaper when he started writing short stories and poetry that earned him great fame. His writings were characterized by humour, pathos, imagination and descriptive power. His style of writing was technically sophisticated which is apparent from his Debits and Credits and Limits and Renewals.
Some of Rudyard Kipling’s writings are humanistic and encouraging in nature. Such as If, My Boy Jack and Gunga Din show the themes of human spirit and ethics. His writings also represent life and political elements from his time.
His style is autobiographical, because of the need to share his traveling stories with his readers and encouraging because of his miserable childhood experiences at the boarding school in England.
Being an Anglo-Indian, he has also written about the East such as Kim with a touch of racism.
He has also adopted a satiric style in his verses, Departmental Ditties which were published in 1886 during his job for the newspaper. During the same period, he also wrote about the Anglo-Indian society and criticized it. One of his famous works Kim was also written about life in British India.
His fables, The Jungle Book and The Second Jungle Book attract readers of all ages which includes the magical aspects of nature. In which he has introduced the technique of indirect exposition, to solve the problem of English audiences who did not know much about Indian society.
His works also include the effective use of literary techniques such as hyperbole, repetition, imagery etc.
Major Themes
Patriotism
Rudyard Kipling was a strong supporter of patriotism and the English Empire. Though some of his writings such as The Mother-Lodge and Gunga Din supported equality, universal peace and harmony to make the world a better place, at other places he wrote in favour of English rule over other countries which gave him a controversial and complex image.
Imperialism
Rudyard Kipling had a strong faith in imperialism and had strong support and enthusiasm for its expansion. For him, white men were highly developed and he felt it to be their duty to spread law, education and morality to the less developed nations. These views made him a racist, elitist and jingoistic.
During the Boers War, he spent several months in South Africa to raise funds for the English army and also wrote for an army newspaper, The Friend.
When he published The Five Nations, a book of South African Verse following the end of the Boer War in 1903, it caused his decline due to the anti-imperialist reactions. Though his support for imperialism made him a great favorite all over the nation and caused him great popularity, in the twentieth century it caused a reaction against him.
Masculinity and Manhood
The theme of manhood is clearly explained in Rudyard Kipling’s If and The Thousandth Man. The poems are a clear demonstration of English self-control and stoicism. He wrote about courage, bravery and a strong spirit which makes a man stronger. In his view, manhood is a set of certain qualities such as honesty, courage, stoicism in order to be strong enough to have a British stiff upper lip.
War and Soldiers’ Problems
Rudyard Kipling’s war poetry is very impressive in which he has encouraged and motivated the soldiers. He has also written about the problems that soldiers face at the frontline and when they return to England.
He criticized the Government for not providing facilities to those who sacrifice their lives for the country. These young people who were dying for the English Empire were not well-treated and Rudyard Kipling wrote about it in Tommy, Danny Deever, Boots and Gentlemen Rankers.