Kipling rudyard

1973 · FB146 /8 — <p>Green cloth binding with red title plates gilt decoration and lettering on the spine. Gilt elephant head on the front board.</p><p>A good clean edition. The Barrack Room Ballads look behind the scenes of the glory days of empire to look at the realities of the ordinary rank and file squaddies who made up the ranks of the armies of the day. The rough justice for Danny Deever and the conflicting contempt and adulation of Tommy clearly reflect this. Joseph Rudyard Kipling 30 December 1865 – 18 January 1936 was an English journalist short-story writer poet and novelist. He was born in India which inspired much of his work. Kipling's works of fiction include The Jungle Book 1894 Kim 1901 and many short stories including "The Man Who Would Be King" 1888. His poems include "Mandalay" 1890 "Gunga Din" 1890 "The Gods of the Copybook Headings" 1919 "The White Man's Burden: The United States and the Philippine Islands" 1899 and "If—" 1910. He is seen as an innovator in the art of the short story. His children's books are classics; one critic noted "a versatile and luminous narrative gift." Kipling in the late 19th and early 20th centuries was among the United Kingdom's most popular writers. Henry James said "Kipling strikes me personally as the most complete man of genius as distinct from fine intelligence that I have ever known." In 1907 he was awarded the Nobel Prize in Literature as the first English-language writer to receive the prize and at 41 its youngest recipient to date. He was also sounded out for the British Poet Laureateship and several times for a knighthood but declined both. Following his death in 1936 his ashes were interred at Poets' Corner part of the South Transept of Westminster Abbey. Kipling's subsequent reputation has changed with the political and social climate of the age. The contrasting views of him continued for much of the 20th century. Literary critic Douglas Kerr wrote: "Kipling is still an author who can inspire passionate disagreement and his place in literary and cultural history is far from settled. But as the age of the European empires recedes he is recognised as an incomparable if controversial interpreter of how empire was experienced. That and an increasing recognition of his extraordinary narrative gifts make him a force to be reckoned with."</p> Methuen hardcover