Rudyard Kipling

Portrait of Rudyard Kipling from the biography Rudyard Kipling by John Palmer, published in 1895, republished in 1907

Born in India in 1865, author and journalist Rudyard Kipling is well known for his novels The Jungle Book and Kim. However, the beloved writer also published a collection of stories for children called Just So Stories for Little Children, or Just So Stories. These imaginative tales were created as bedtime stories for his oldest daughter, Josephine, and contained imaginative descriptions of how an animal had a distinct feature. The folktales include an explanation of why the camel has a hump and why the leopard has spots. Just So Stories were published in 1902, as Kipling was inspired to share the stories when Josephine passed away from pneumonia on a trip to the United States from England. Just So Stories have inspired several animated versions, a Disney vinyl record, and a musical.