This is an I-Heart podcast.

This is Lee Habib, and this is Our American Stories, and we tell stories about everything

here on this show, including your stories. Send them to Our American Stories and we tell stories about everything here on this show, including your

stories, send them to our American Stories.com. They're some of our favorites. And now on to

the History Guy. His videos are watched by hundreds of thousands of people of all ages on YouTube.

The History Guy is also heard here at our American Stories. The life of the youngest

ever winner of the Nobel Prize for Literature Rudyard Kipling was filled with tragedy.

He survived a difficult childhood to go on to become one of the most celebrated authors of his day,

penning such classics as The Jungle Book and Just So Stories.

Here's the history guy with the story of Rudyard Kipling.

Now, in Injus Sunny Klein, what I used to spend my time, servant of Her Majesty, the Queen, of all the black-faced crew,

the finest man I knew was Regimental Beastie, Gung it in.

Was din, din, din, you limping lup a brick dust, Gungadin.

High, slippery, hithero, water bring it to parry low, you squishy nose, old idle, Gungadin.

Written in 1890, the poem Gungadin was one of the most famous poems in the world in its time.

Crackles the life of a British soldier in India and offers an unlikely hero in the person of

Gungadine, the retimental water bearer, who represents an idea perhaps surprising to the soldier

narrator that a person's worth is not defined by their race.

The poem has inspired films and songs and its famous last line, You're a better man than I am, Gunga Den, is an off-quoted bit of praise.

But the author of the poem, the youngest person ever to receive the Nobel Prize for Literature,

lived a tragic life.

Rudyard Kipling, the author of such a beloved classics, as The Jungle Book and Captain's

...