The Five Nations

The Five Nations, poems about the Boer war ( 1899-1902 ) in South Africa and its consequences, was published in 1903.

Rudyard Kipling (1865-1936) was not yet 25 when he burst onto the literary scene in London, where his stories of Anglo-Indian life made him an instant celebrity. He won the Nobel Prize in 1907. Born in India in 1865 to an upper-class military family, he spent his early years in Britain and India and achieved his initial success as a reporter in India. He traveled widely and visited the U.S. a number of times, eventually building a house in Vermont. A restless wanderer, he ultimately settled in Sussex, only to have his world tumble into ruins with the death of his son in World War I.

Kipling is revered for his adult and children's stories and poems, but much of his life and writing is largely unknown in the United States. (Because he believed, and wrote, that Americans were ignorant provincials, his political views were not appreciated in the states.) Witty, profound, wildly funny, acerbic and occasionally savage, Rudyard Kipling's writings continue to delight readers of all ages.