Captains Courageous

Rudyard Kipling's Captains Courageous is a story that follows fifteen-year-old Harvey Cheyne Jr. through his adventures. Harvey is the son of a wealthy railroad tycoon, and is spoiled and largely unaware of the ways of the world. When he is stranded on the shore of the Grand Banks after having been washed overboard from his transatlantic steamship, he meets the Captain of "We're Here" and has to accept a position on his ship. Harvey's adventures on the ship teach him about industry and consideration for others while Kipling weaves in themes of class differences and humility.

Joseph Rudyard Kipling (1865 - 1936) was an English journalist, 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". Kipling was one of the most popular writers in the United Kingdom, in both prose and verse, in the late 19th and early 20th centuries. Henry James said: "Kipling strikes me personally as the most complete man of genius, as distinct from fine intelligence, that I have ever known." In 1907, at the age of 42, he was awarded the Nobel Prize in Literature, making him the first English-language writer to receive the prize and its youngest recipient to date. He was also sounded out for the British Poet Laureateship and on several occasions for a knighthood, both of which he declined.