After serving in World War I, in which he was seriously wounded, he and his family moved to Connecticut in the U.S.A.. He was married three times.
Hugh Lofting's doctor from Puddleby-on-the-Marsh who could speak to animals first saw light in the author's illustrated letters to children, written from the trenches during World War I when actual news, he later said, was either too horrible or too dull. The stories are set in early Victorian England. The Story of Doctor Dolittle: Being the History of His Peculiar Life at Home and Astonishing Adventures in Foreign Parts Never Before Printed (1920) began the series. The sequel The Voyages of Doctor Dolittle (1922) won Lofting the prestigious Newbery Medal. Ten more followed, and after his death two more volumes, composed of short unpublished pieces, appeared. The series has been adapted for film and television many times, for stage twice, and for radio.
"For years it was a constant source of shock to me to find my writings amongst 'Juveniles,'" Lofting reported. "It does not bother me any more now, but I still feel there should be a category of 'Seniles' to offset the epithet."
External links
A Hugh Lofting website (http://members.tripod.com/~Puddleby/)
After serving in World War I, in which he was seriously wounded, he and his family moved to Connecticut in the U.S.A. He was married three times.
HughLofting's doctor from Puddleby-on-the-Marsh who could speak to animals first saw light in the author's illustrated letters to children, written from the trenches during World War I when actual news, he later said, was either too horrible or too dull.
HughLofting was born in Maidenhead, Berkshire, England, on January 14, 1886 to John Brien Lofting and Elizabeth Agnes Gannon.
Lofting attended Mount St. Mary's, a Jesuit boarding school in Chesterfield, Derbyshire until 1904, then went to MIT in the United States, where he was trained as a civil engineer.
After being wounded, Lofting left the Guard and moved to New York City in the hopes of becoming a writer.