Born in Bombay, India, Rudyard Kipling was the son of an art teacher from England. From native nurses Kipling heard the stories of jungle animals—stories the Indian people told their own children.
When Kipling was six years old, he was sent to England to be educated. He became ill, however, and did not go to school until five years later. When he was ready to go to college, his parents told him he might do that or return to India. He decided to go to Lahore, India, where his father was then director of a museum.
In Lahore Kipling went to work for a newspaper. He wrote a number of poems and short stories which appeared in the paper. They were later published in two books. In 1887 he went to Allahabad to work on a newspaper there. Most of his spare time he spent in writing stories.
By the time he was 26 years old he was already a famous author. On a visit to England he met and married an American girl. With his new wife he went to live in Brattleboro, Vt., his wife's home.
For his own children he wrote The Jungle Book, The Second Jungle Book, and Just So Stories. While living in Vermont he also wrote Captains Courageous, a story of a rich boy's experiences with a crew of New England fishermen.
After a few years in America Kipling took his family to England, where he lived the rest of his life. There he wrote other stories, among them Stalky & Co. and Puck of Pook's Hill. The little boy called Beetle in Stalky & Co. is really Kipling. The story tells about the author's schooldays.
