Joseph Rudyard Kipling 30 December 1865 - 18 January 1936) was an English short-story writer, poet, and novelist. Kipling's works of fiction include The Jungle Book (1894), Kim (1901), and many short stories, including "The Man Who Would Be King" (1888). His poems include "Mandalay" (1890), "Gunga Din" (1890), "The Gods of the Copybook Headings" (1919), "The White Man's Burden" (1899), and "If-" (1910). He is regarded as a major innovator in the art of the short story;his children's books are classics of children's literature; and one critic described his work as exhibiting "a versatile and luminous narrative gift"