Life's Handicap: Being Stories of Mine Own People

Subtitled 'Being Stories of Mine Own People' Kipling wrote that these tales are 'from all places and all sorts of people'.. 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 (1899) and If— (1910). He is regarded as a major innovator in the art of the short story; his children's books are classics of children's literature; and one critic described his work as exhibiting a versatile and luminous narrative gift.. Kipling was one of the most popular writers in England in both prose and verse in the late 19th and early 20th centuries. 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 making him the first English-language writer to receive the prize and its youngest recipient to date Among other honours he was sounded out for the British Poet Laureateship and on several occasions for a knighthood all of which he declined.