Rudyard Kipling is one of the outstanding British writers. He was born in 1865 in the family of an Englishman in India. He got his education in England but returned to India in 1882. There he spent 6 years working in colonial English press. There he published his first literary works. In 1890 he published his first novel "The Light that Failed", which brought him fame. He was one of the most popular writers of his time. During his life he visited South Africa, Australia, New Zealand and Japan.
His novel "Kim" was written under the impressions of the War. In October 1902 his "Just so Stories for Little Children" were published. His fairy-tales from the book were rather unusual for the British literature of that period. One can find the influence of Lewis Carroll's "Alice in Wonderland" in Kipling's work. But this influence didn't prevent Kipling from creating absolutely new, unusual fairy-tales. The unusual effect of his tales is reached by the rhythm and the music of words. Those who were lucky to listen to Kipling reading his fairy-tales noted that they always sounded truthful. Besides, not only children but even adults were very fond of "Just so Stories". Together with "The Jungle Book" it still enjoys great popularity. Every year the children in "Kipling Society" write continuation to his fairy-tales. In 1907 Kipling was awarded the Nobel Prize.
Lewis Carroll
Lewis Carroll was the pen-name of Charles L. Dodgson, the man who wrote a famous book for children "Alice's Adventures in Wonderland". Charles L. Dodgson was born in England in 1832. He got his early education at a public school. Then he became a student at Oxford. Charles studied mathematics and later taught this subject in the same college.
Charles Dodgson had no family, but he loved children very much. He often visited his friend, who had a large family. There were three little girls in the family. One of them Alice, was four years old. Dodgson liked Alice very much and he often told her interesting stories which he made up himself. Charles told Alice Liddell about the adventure of a little girl, and she liked the stories very much.
When Alice Liddell was about ten years old, she asked Charles to write down the stories for her, and he did so. He called the heroine of his book also Alice. This hand-written book had many pictures made by Charles himself. They were not very good pictures but the children liked them.
One day a friend of the Liddells, a writer, came to see the family. He saw the hand-written book made by Charles Dodgson and began to read it with a great interest. He read the book to the end and said that it was good and that all the children in England must read it. Charles decided to publish the book but he did not want to do it under his own name. So he took the pen-name of Lewis Carroll. The book came out in 1865 and all the people who read it liked it very much. Later the book was published in the United States, in France and in Germany. The first Russian translation of "Alice's Adventures in Wonderland" came out in 1923.