Rudyard Kipling, A Life (Harry Ricketts, 1999)

This was interesting, a quick read. I didn't really know much about where Kipling fit into things, so it was helpful.

Basically he spent a good chunk of his early life being exposed to India because of his father's job there (along with interludes being educated in England, including an unpleasant stay with what amounted to a foster family). Obvious talent for writing. Took a job with a Brit newspaper in India, and eventually put together a number of stories that brought him celebrity at a young age. Lived in the U.S. for a few years, then back to England.

He never produced a great full-length novel, and apparently it was quite the fashion for the intelligentsia to criticize him after the initial acclaim wore off. Yet he remained very popular with the reading public (which probably explains some of the criticism). Sounds like some of his work was quite good, including a piece that Forster must have had in mind when he wrote A Passage to India.

He became the poet for the (declining) British Empire, though I don't know that he planned for this. His background spanning India and England gave him the right perspective, and he was a true believer. Including the (now in)famous phrase about the "white man's burden." Big admirer of Cecil Rhodes.

His son was killed in WWI, and Kipling devoted lots of energy in support of the war effort. In later years he offered lots of political commentary - much of which sounded quite current as he opposed expansion of the welfare state, emphasized individual reliance, etc. The kind of talk that always decreases one's popularity among the greater portion of the arts community.

So this was an interesting look from a different perspective about the Empire, the Boer War, colonialism, WWI, etc.

I like stories involving intersection between the cultures, and think I shall read some of his works.