The Man Who Would Be King written in 1888, is a novella by Rudyard Kipling about two British adventurers who while travelling in Afghanistan become the kings of Kafiristan. The storey draws its inspiration from the exploits of James Brooke, an Englishman who became the first White Rajah of Sarawak in Borneo, and those of Josiah Harlan, an American adventurer who became the prince of Ghor and was granted perpetuity to himself and his decendants.

The storey was first published in The Phantom Rickshaw and other Eerie Tales (Volume Five of the Indian Railway Library, published by A. H. Wheeler & Co of Allahabad in 1888). It also appeared in Wee Willie Winkie and Other storeys in 1895, and in numerous later editions of that collection.

A radio adaption was broadcast on the show Escape on July 7, 1947 and again on August 1, 1948. In 1975, it was adapted by director John Huston into a feature film of the same name, starring Sean Connery and Michael Caine as the adventurers and Christopher Plummer as Kipling.