Joseph Rudyard Kipling was an English novelist, short story author, poet, and journalist. He was born in British India, which influenced much of his work. Kipling's writing includes the Jungle Book duology (The Jungle Book, 1894; The Second Jungle Book, 1895), Kim (1901), the Just So Stories (1902), and other short stories, including "The Man Who Would Be King" (1888). His poetry includes "Mandalay" (1890), "Gunga Din" (1890), "The Gods of Copybook Headings" (1919), and "The White Man's Burden" (1899). He is regarded as a pioneer in the art of the short tale. His children's books are classics; one writer praised him for having "a versatile and luminous narrative gift". In the late nineteenth and early twentieth century, Kipling was one of the most popular writers in the United Kingdom. A quote from Henry James: "Kipling strikes me personally as the most complete man of genius, as distinct from fine intelligence, that I have ever known."In 1907, he received the Nobel Prize in Literature as the first English-language writer and, at 41, the youngest recipient to date. He was also considered for the position of British Poet Laureate and many knighthoods, but declined both. After his death in 1936, his ashes were deposited in Poets' Corner, which is part of Westminster Abbey's South Transept.

Preface; Letters of Marque: 1. Of the beginning of things; 2. Shows the charm of Rajputana and of Jeypore, the city of the Globe-trotters; 3. Does not in any sort describe the dead city of Amber; 4. The Temple of Mahadeo and the manners of such as see India; 5. Of the sordidness of the supreme government on the revenue side; 6. Showing how Her Majesty's mails went to Udaipur and fell out by the way; 7. Touching the children of the sun and their city; 8. Divers passages of speech and action whence the nature, arts, and disposition of the king and his subjects may be observed; 9. Of the pig-drive which was a panther-killing, and of the departure to Chitor; 10. A little of the history of Chitor, and the malpractices of a she-elephant; 11. Proves conclusively the existence of the dark tower visited by Childe Rolande, and of 'Bogey' who frightens children; 12. Contains the history of the Bhumia of Jhaswara, and the record of a visit to the house of strange stories; 13. A king's house and country; 14. Among the Houyhnhnms; 15. Treats of the startling effect of a reduction in wages and the pleasures of loaferdom; 16. The comedy of errors and the exploitation of Boondi; 17. Shows that there may be poetry in a bank, and attempts to show the wonders of the palace of Boondi; 18. Of the uncivilised night and the departure to things civilised; 19. Comes back to the railway, after reflections on the management of the Empire; From Sea to Sea: 1. Of freedom and the necessity of using her; 2. The River of the Lost Footsteps and the Golden Mystery upon its banks; 3. The City of Elephants which is governed by the Great God of Idleness, who lives on the top of a hill; 4. Showing how I came to Palmiste Island the place of Paul and Virginia, and fell asleep in a garden; 5. Of the threshold of the Far East and the dwellers thereon; 6. Of the well-dressed islanders of Singapur and their diversions; 7. Shows how I arrived in China and saw entirely through the Great Wall and out upon the other side; 8. Of Jenny and her friends; 9. Some talk with a Taipan and a General; 10. Shows how I came to Goblin Market and took a scunner at it and cursed the Chinese People; 11. Of Japan at ten hours' sight, containing a complete account of the manners and customs of its people, a history of its constitution, products, art, and civilisation, and omitting a tiffin in a tea-house with O-Toyo; 12. A further consideration of Japan; 13. The Japanese theatre and the story of the thunder cat; 14. Explains in what manner I was taken to Venice in the rain, and climbed into a devil fort; 15. Kioto, and how I fell in love with the chief belle there after I had conferred with certain China merchants who trafficked in tea; 16. The party in the parlour who played games; 17. Of the nature of the Tokaido and Japanese railway construction; 18. Concerning a hot-water tap, and some general conversation; 19. The legend of Nikko Ford and the story of the avoidance of misfortune; 20. Shows how I grossly libelled the Japanese army, and edited a civil and military gazette which is not in the least trustworthy; 21. Shows the similarity between the Babu and the Japanese; 22. Shows how I came to America before my time and was much shaken in body and soul; 23. How I got to San Francisco and took tea with the natives there; 24. Shows how through folly I assisted at a murder and was afraid.