Brain Snacks: Tasty Tidbits of Knowledge
Boy, it must be hard writing in the middle of the jungle. All those giant insects and lurking tigers, plus the rain making all the paper soggy… Good thing Kipling wrote The Jungle Book in Vermont, then. Yes, that Vermont, snuggled between upstate New York and New Hampshire. (Source.)
Perhaps the author page should read "By Rudyard Kipling and Whomever He Stole These Stories From." In 1895, Kipling confessed to plagiarizing some of the stories from The Jungle Book from someone else… but he can't remember who. If plagiarism eventually helps someone earn a Nobel Prize, maybe Shia LaBeouf will be the next Nobel Prize winner in fiction. (Source.)
Mowgli was the original Cub Scout. Robert Baden-Powell, founder of the Scout Movement, based the Cub Scouts on the first chapter of The Jungle Book, "Mowgli's Brothers." Cubmasters and Assistant Cubmasters are even given honorary titles plucked from the text: Akela, Baloo, and Bagheera. (Source.)
Kipling was born in India back when England owned everything—land, people, and animals. He lived there until he was six years old, when his family returned to London and he attended school there. He returned to India in 1889, when he began to write. (Source.)
Please, call him Rudyard. Mr. Kipling was his father. Rudyard Kipling was good with words, but his dad, John Lockwood Kipling, brought early versions of The Jungle Book to life with his illustrations. (Source.)