At the turn of the 20th century, Rudyard Kipling towered over not just English literature but the entire literary world. Kipling's intense engagement with the United States, however, is a rarely discussed but critical piece of evidence in our understanding of this man and his enduring legacy. Tracing the writer's 1889-99 sojourn in America, Christopher Benfey focuses on Kipling's four years in Brattleboro, Vermont, a happy and creative period during which he wrote The Jungle Book and Captains Courageous. In this New York Times Notable Book of 2019, Benfey also discusses the sordid family dispute that forced Kipling to return to Britain.