 
joseph rudyard kipling was a striking exception to the belief that 
writers, and poets in particular, usually starve. 
while still in his early twenties, he began to publish at an incredible 
rate in newspapers and magazines and soon found himself one of the hugest and 
youngest successes of any writer who ever lived. 
his short stories, novels, and poems were enormously popular, especially 
in england, the united states, and india, and he was one of the first writers 
to be published in paperback books. 
kipling was born in bombay, the "gateway of india." 
as a young boy he spoke hindustani as well as he did english, and was 
brought up on indian tales and legends told by his nurse in local dialect. 
he even went to both christian and hindu religious services, depending on 
which servant had charge of him that day. 
when he was five-and-a-half, he was sent to england for his education, but 
he returned to india before he was seventeen. 
an intelligent and inquisitive young man, he observed closely everything 
around him, the customs and the people, the plants and the animals, the usual 
and the unusual. 
this india that he learned to know so well was to furnish the characters, 
plots, and setting for many of his stories and poems. 
at the age of twenty-three, kipling returned to england from india with a 
suitcase full of stories and poems which launched his early success as a 
writer. 
a few years after his success in england, kipling married an american and 
lived for four years in vermont, traveling widely in america and giving 
lectures. 
