With the Main GuardThe Drums of the Fore and AftThe Man who wasThe Courting of Dinah ShaddThe Incarnation of Krishna MulvaneyThe Taking of LungtungpenThe Madness of Private OrtherisKipling 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.