Rudyard Kipling

The Jungle Book Rudyard Kipling

Publisher Marketing: The Jungle Book (1894) is a collection of stories by English Nobel laureate Rudyard Kipling. The stories were first published in magazines in 1893-94. The original publications contain illustrations, some by Rudyard's father, John Lockwood Kipling. Kipling was born in India and spent the first six years of his childhood there. After about ten years in England, he went back to India and worked there for about six-and-a-half years. These stories were written when Kipling lived in Vermont. There is evidence that it was written for his daughter Josephine, who died in 1899 aged six, after a rare first edition of the book with a poignant handwritten note by the author to his young daughter was discovered at the National Trust's Wimpole Hall in Cambridgeshire in 2010. The tales in the book (and also those in The Second Jungle Book which followed in 1895, and which includes five further stories about Mowgli) are fables, using animals in an anthropomorphic manner to give moral lessons. The verses of The Law of the Jungle, for example, lay down rules for the safety of individuals, families and communities. Kipling put in them nearly everything he knew or "heard or dreamed about the Indian jungle." Other readers have interpreted the work as allegories of the politics and society of the time. The best-known of them are the three stories revolving around the adventures of an abandoned "man cub" Mowgli who is raised by wolves in the Indian jungle. The most famous of the other stories are probably "Rikki-Tikki-Tavi," the story of a heroic mongoose, and "Toomai of the Elephants," the tale of a young elephant-handler. As with much of Kipling's work, each of the stories is preceded by a piece of verse, and succeeded by another. Review Citations: School Library Journal 05/01/2007 pg. 100 (EAN 9780836876635, Library Binding) Hornbook Guide to Children 01/01/1991 (EAN 9781559701273, Hardcover) School Library Journal 11/01/1991 (EAN 9781559701273, Hardcover) Ingram Paperback Advance 05/01/2005 pg. 63 (EAN 9780451529756, Mass Market Paperbound) PW Notes and Reprints 05/09/2005 pg. 73 (EAN 9780763623173, Hardcover) Booklist 05/01/2005 pg. 1583 (EAN 9780763623173, Hardcover) Kirkus Review - Children 06/01/2005 pg. 639 (EAN 9780763623173, Hardcover) School Library Journal 06/01/2005 pg. 118 (EAN 9780763623173, Hardcover) Hornbook Guide to Children 07/01/2005 pg. 319 (EAN 9780763623173, Hardcover) Wilson Children's Catalog 01/01/2006 pg. 792 (EAN 9780763623173, Hardcover) Wilson Children's Catalog 01/01/2010 pg. 1178 (EAN 9780763623173, Hardcover) Hornbook Guide to Children 01/01/1992 (EAN 9780883632017, Hardcover) Wilson Children's Catalog 01/01/1991 pg. 579 (EAN 9780140432824, Paperback) Booklist 10/15/1995 pg. 404 (EAN 9780688099794, Hardcover) New York Times 12/03/1995 pg. 68 (EAN 9780688099794, Hardcover) School Library Journal 11/01/1995 pg. 112 (EAN 9780688099794, Hardcover) Hornbook Guide to Children 07/01/1995 pg. 64 (EAN 9780688099794, Hardcover) Wilson Children's Catalog 01/01/2001 pg. 547 (EAN 9780688099794, Hardcover) Wilson Children's Catalog 01/01/2006 pg. 792 (EAN 9780688099794, Hardcover) Wilson Middle/Junior Hi Catalo 01/01/2009 pg. 1067 (EAN 9780688099794, Hardcover) Wilson Children's Catalog 01/01/2010 pg. 1178 (EAN 9780688099794, Hardcover) School Library Journal 07/01/1996 pg. 85 (EAN 9780670869190, Hardcover) Hornbook Guide to Children 01/01/1996 pg. 302 (EAN 9780670869190, Hardcover) Wilson Children's Catalog 01/01/1991 pg. 579 (EAN 9780451523402, Mass Market Paperbound) Hornbook Guide to Children 07/01/2013 pg. 82 (EAN 9781402782848, Hardcover) Hornbook Guide to Children 07/01/2012 pg. 72 (EAN 9780375869617, Hardcover) Hornbook Guide to Children 07/01/2012 pg. 72 (EAN 9780375969614, Library Binding) Wilson Children's Catalog 01/01/1991 pg. 579 (EAN 9780606044073, Prebound-Sewn) Contributor Bio:  Kipling, Rudyard Joseph Rudyard Kipling was born December 30, 1865, in Bombay, India. The name Rudyard was taken from a lake in Staffordshire, England. At the age of six, he and his younger sister were sent back to England where they lived with separate families that took in children for hire. He returned to India at age sixteen. Rudyard knew literary success at a young age and was able to travel. He married Carrie Balestier, an American, and moved to the United States. The Jungle Books were written in Vermont. He died January 18, 1936, in Middlesex, England during an operation.