The Man Who Would Be King

Publisher Marketing: The Man Who Would Be King (1888) is a novella by Rudyard Kipling. It is about two British adventurers in British India who become kings of Kafiristan, a remote part of Afghanistan. The story was inspired by the exploits of James Brooke, an Englishman who became the first White Rajah of Sarawak in Borneo; and by the travels of American adventurer Josiah Harlan, who was granted the title Prince of Ghor in perpetuity for himself and his descendants. It incorporates a number of other factual elements such as the European-like appearance of many Nuristani people, and an ending modelled on the return of the head of the explorer Adolf Schlagintweit to colonial administrators. Joseph Rudyard Kipling (30 December 1865 - 18 January 1936) was an English short-story writer, poet, and novelist chiefly remembered for his tales and poems of British soldiers in India, and his tales for children. He received the Nobel Prize for Literature in 1907. He was born in Bombay, in the Bombay Presidency of British India, and was taken by his family to England when he was five years old. Contributor Bio:  Kipling, Rudyard Joseph Rudyard Kipling was born December 30, 1865, in Bombay, India. The name Rudyard was taken from a lake in Staffordshire, England. At the age of six, he and his younger sister were sent back to England where they lived with separate families that took in children for hire. He returned to India at age sixteen. Rudyard knew literary success at a young age and was able to travel. He married Carrie Balestier, an American, and moved to the United States. The Jungle Books were written in Vermont. He died January 18, 1936, in Middlesex, England during an operation. Contributor Bio:  Struik, Alex Lao Tzu was a philosopher of ancient China, best known as the author of the Tao Te Ching. His association with the Tao Te Ching has led him to be traditionally considered the founder of philosophical Taoism. He is also revered as a deity in most religious forms of Taoist philosophy, which often refers to Lao Tzu as Taishang Laojun, or "One of the Three Pure Ones." According to Chinese traditions, Lao Tzu lived in the 6th century BC. Historians variously contend that Lao Tzu is a synthesis of multiple historical figures, that he is a mythical figure, or that he actually lived in the 5th-4th century BC, concurrent with the Hundred Schools of Thought and Warring States Period.