With the Main Guard The Drums of the Fore and Aft The Man who was The Courting of Dinah Shadd The Incarnation of Krishna Mulvaney The Taking of Lungtungpen The Madness of Private Ortheris 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.