Introduction and Notes by R.T. Jones, Honorary Fellow of the University of York This edition of the poetry of Rudyard Kipling (1865-1936) includes all the poems contained in the Definitive Edition of 1940. In his lifetime, Kipling was widely regarded as the unofficial Poet Laureate, and he was awarded the Nobel Prize for Literature in 1907. His poetry is striking for its many rhythms and popular forms of speech, and Kipling was equally at home with dramatic monologues and extended ballads. He is often thought of as glorifying war, militarism, and the British Empire, but an attentive reading of the poems does not confirm that view. This edition reprints George Orwell's hard-hitting account of Kipling's poems, first published in 1942, and generally regarded as one of the most important contributions to critical discussion of Kipling. AUTHOR: Rudyard Joseph Kipling was born in Bombay in 1865. In 1982 he started work as a journalist in India, and while there produced a body of work, stories, sketches and poems notably Plain Tales from the Hills (1888) which made him an instant literary celebrity when he returned to England the following year. In 1901 Kim appeared and was followed in 1902 by the Just So Stories. Tales of every kind including historical and science fiction continued to flow from his pen, but Kim is generally thought to be his greatest long work, putting him high among the chroniclers of British expansion. He was the first English writer to be awarded the Nobel Prize, in 1907. He died in 1936 and his autobiographical 'Something of Myself' was published the following year.