How Kipling Got His Words
by Glen Draeger

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A long time ago, though not so long ago as you might think, a young boy was born—but, of course, all boys and girls are young when they are born. This young boy was born in the far off land of India in the city of Bombay and his name was Rudyard Kipling.

Once as he walked to a friend's house by himself, when he was even younger than you, a squawking chicken, its wings flapping wildly, attacked him. I know what that feels like because when I was about five years old a rooster attacked me in our chicken yard, but fortunately my father chased the rooster away after giving it a swift kick. That made me very happy.

Rudyard, however, was alone. After the chicken attacked him he ran home to tell his father what happened. He cried and was frightened. Mr. Kipling did something strange, at least strange for most fathers, he drew a picture and gave it to Rudyard. It showed Rudyard being attacked by the chicken, but underneath the picture he wrote this poem:

There was a small boy in Bombay
Who once from a hen ran away
When they said, "You're a baby,"
He replied, "I may be:
But I don't like these hens of Bombay."

Rudyard remembered this poem even when he was an old man and it may be one reason why he wrote poems in your Just So Stories book.

Rudyard's parents sent him back to England to go to school. He did not like being away from his parents who were still in India, but his father sent him the book, Robinson Crusoe. Young Rudyard loved to read it and to pretend that he was living in the jungle. He also memorized poems so that when he was in bed he could repeat them to himself.

When he was 16 he returned to India once again. His first job was writing for a newspaper. In India he watched and listened and wrote. He wrote many hours every day and soon became a famous writer. He wrote The Jungle Book which is where the movie by the same name comes from.

The Just So Stories you are reading are stories he made up to entertain his daughter, Josephine. She sometimes told him what to change or helped him make up things.

Now you know where some of Rudyard Kipling's words came from.

Young Rudyard attacked by a hen,
Left India before he was ten.
He read about Crusoe
(who wasn't an Eskimo).
To write he came back,
(he wasn't a hack)
And these stories so keen
He told to Josephine.

Regards,

Mr. Draeger

sources:

Kipling, Rudyard, Something of Myself, Doubleday, Doran and Company, Inc., 1937.

©2005-2008 Glen Draeger (all rights reserved)
Millstone Education: World Literature / http://www.millstoneeducation.com/worldLit