Rudyard Kipling won the 1907 Nobel Prize in Literature for his power of observation, originality of imagination, and remarkable talent for narration.
Kipling was born in Bombay, British India, in 1865 and became one of the most widely read English-language writers of the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. His best-known works include The Jungle Book, Kim, and the poem “If—.”
The Swedish Academy’s citation praised his ability to combine observation, imagination, ideas, and narrative talent. Kipling was 41 when he received the prize, making him one of the youngest Literature laureates at that time.
Readers sometimes associate Kipling only with children’s literature, but his work also includes novels, short stories, poetry, and journalism about British India and the wider British Empire.