Rudyard Kipling, the most vigorous, versatile, and highly endowed of
the present-day writers of fiction, was born in Bombay, India, December
30, 1865. His place of birth and extensive travelling make him more
Anglo-Saxon than British. His father was for many years connected with
the schools of art at Bombay and Lahore in India. His mother, Alice
MacDonald, was the daughter of a Methodist clergyman.
Kipling was brought to England when he was five years old to be
educated. While in college at Westward Ho he edited the _College
Chronicle_. For this paper he contributed regularly, poetry and
stories. After his school days and on his return to India, he served on
the editorial staff of the Lahore _Civil and Military Gazette_ from
1882 to 1887, and was assistant editor of the _Pioneer_ at Allahabad
from 1887 to 1889.
Kipling has travelled extensively. He is at home in India, China,
Japan, Africa, Australia, England, and America. The odd part about his
realistic observations, however, is that his notes, whether written
about California or India, are often repudiated by the people whom he
has visited. After visiting England and the United States in a vain
effort to find a publisher for his writings, he returned to India and
published in the _Pioneer_ his _American Notes_, which were immediately
reproduced in book form in New York in 1891.
He married Miss Balestier of New York in 1892. They settled at
Brattleboro, Vermont, immediately after their marriage and lived there
until 1896. Kipling revisited the United States in 1899. While on this
trip he suffered a severe attack of pneumonia which brought out a
demonstration of interest from the American people that clearly showed
their appreciation of him as a man and a writer.