The Jungle Books

“Kipling knew something of the things which are underneath, and of the things which are beyond the frontier.”—T. S. Eliot

Rudyard Kipling

Rudyard Kipling (1865-1936) was born in Bombay, the son of an Anglo-Indian professor of architectural sculpture. Brought up in the care of “ayahs,” or native nurses, he learned Hindustani and the native lore that would later haunt his imagination and be reflected in The Jungle Books. At the age of six, he was sent to England, and at twelve, he attended a school at Westward Ho!, which would become the setting for Stalky & Co.

In 1883, Kipling returned to India and began a career in journalism, writing news stories, tales, and ballads that would soon establish his reputation. After seven years, he went back to England, already a literary star. He married an American and lived in Vermont intermittently from 1892 to 1894. He then returned to the English countryside, where he remained for the rest of his life, with only a few trips abroad.

Kipling authored innumerable stories and poems. He is best known for Soldiers Three (1888), The Light That Failed (1890), The Jungle Books (1894-95), Captains Courageous (1897), Stalky & Co. (1899), Kim (1901), and Just So Stories (1902). Among his many honors, he received the Nobel Prize for Literature in 1907.

Alberto Manguel

Alberto Manguel is a Canadian citizen, born in Buenos Aires, who settled in France. He is a member of the Canadian Writers’ Union, PEN, and a fellow of the Guggenheim Foundation. He has been recognized as an Officer of the French Order of Arts and Letters and holds honorary doctorates from the University of Liège in Belgium and Anglia Ruskin University in Cambridge, England.

Manguel has received numerous awards, including the Prix Médicis essay prize (France) for A History of Reading, the McKitterick prize (England) for his novel News from a Foreign Country Came, and the Grinzane Cavour prize (Italy) for A Reading Diary. He also won the German Sánchez Ruipérez Prize (Spain) and the Prix Roger Caillois prize (France) for his body of work, which has been translated into more than thirty languages.

Alev Lytle Croutier

Alev Lytle Croutier, whose books have been translated into twenty-one languages, is the only woman novelist from Turkey to achieve extensive worldwide publication. She is the author of the international bestseller Harem: The World Behind the Veil, novels such as The Palace of Tears and Seven Houses, and for young readers, American Girl’s Leyla: The Black Tulip.

Croutier is the founding editor and editor-in-chief of the Mercury House publishing company. She frequently lectures at universities, museums, and conferences.

This item is eligible for free returns within 30 days of delivery. See our returns policy for further details.