A 'gentle' writing approach

“If history were taught in the form of stories, it would never be forgotten.” – Rudyard Kipling

Born to British parents in India on this date in 1865, Kipling wrote one of literature’s most innovative tales, The Jungle Book.  But despite its lasting success, during his own lifetime (he died in 1936) it was not ranked at the top of the many great stories he authored.  In his day his novels Kim and Captains Courageous; his short story "The Man Who Would Be King;” and his poems "Mandalay,” and "Gunga Din” were considered even better and more popular.   Those works and many, many others by this great writer are not only still in print but also extensively studied in writing programs everywhere.

One of the most popular writers in the British Empire in the late 19^th and early 20^th centuries, Kipling was also a journalist, travel writer, and      science fiction editor and writer.  His cumulative writing skills earned him the Nobel Prize in Literature at age 42, both the first English-language writer and the youngest person ever to earn this pinnacle writing award. 

Kipling was regarded as a major innovator in the art of the short story, and one critic described his work as exhibiting "a versatile and luminous narrative gift.”  Among the many, many sayings attributed to him is the Mother’s Day favorite:  “God could not be everywhere, and therefore he made mothers.”

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