Celebrate Rudyard

So on this day in 1865 Rudyard Kipling was born in Bombay India. Actually Joseph Rudyard Kipling was born. Why he chose his middle name over the perfectly spell-able Joseph remains a mystery. There can't have been that many Kiplings running around for pete's sake. The 'Rudyard' didn't keep him from winning the Nobel Prize for Literature in 1907. He wrote poetry, novels, short stories, children's books - everything but agricultural manuals. So L. Frank Baum, author of The Wizard of Oz has one up on him. Baum's first book was The Book of the Hamburgs, A Brief Treatise upon the Mating, Rearing, and Management of the Different Varieties of Hamburgs. Hamburgs are chickens. You'd think they'd be cows, but no. I digress! Two of Kipling's most famous works, the Jungle Book and Just So Stories start with the letters 'ju'. What were the chances? About the same as someone choosing the name 'Rudyard' instead of 'Joseph'.

Graphic source: Biography Resource Center