Short biography of hugh lofting
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Hugh Lofting Biography
Hugh Lofting – British author and illustrator, 1886-1947
Hugh Lofting is best known for creating Doctor Dolittle, one of the most enduring characters in children’s literature. Hugh Lofting was born in Maidenhead, Berkshire, England, and attended a Jesuit boarding school. Although he was interested in books and writing as a child, Lofting studied civil engineering and architecture in college. He attended Massachusetts Institute of Technology, but finished his degree at London Polytechnic
The Story of Doctor Dolittle (1920) was an instant success, Nineteenth-century English physician John Dolittle lives in Puddleby-on-the-Marsh. When Doctor Dolittle’s many pets drive away his human patients, he becomes an animal doctor and naturalist, With the help of Polynesia, an abrasively humorous parrot, the doctor masters a variety of animal languages, then travels to Africa to fight a mysterious illness that is killing off the monkey population. The ep
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Hugh Lofting
English-American children's writer (1886–1947)
Hugh Lofting | |
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Lofting in 1935 | |
Born | Hugh John Lofting (1886-01-14)14 January 1886 Maidenhead, Berkshire, England |
Died | 26 September 1947(1947-09-26) (aged 61) Topanga, California, US |
Resting place | Evergreen Cemetery, Killingworth, Middlesex County, Connecticut, USA |
Nickname | l |
Occupation | Novelist, poet |
Genre | Children's literature, fantasy |
Notable works | Doctor Dolittle series |
Notable awards | Newbery Medal 1923 |
Spouse |
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Children | 3 |
Hugh John Lofting (14 January 1886 – 26 September 1947) was an English-American writer, trained as a civil engineer, who created the classic children's literature character Doctor Dolittle.[1] The fictional physician to talking animals, based in an English village, first appeared in illustrated letters to his children which
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The desired world travel actually commenced before the career did, as Lofting went straight to America to begin studies for his engineering degree at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. After a year (1904-05) at MIT, it was back to England, to finish up (1906-07) at the London Polytechnic. Then there followed a brief stint as an architect, after which the odyssey began in earnest. The newly minted civil engineer did some prospecting and surveying in Canada in 1908-09, and went on between 1910 and 1912 to work first for the Lagos Railway in West Africa and then for the Railway of Havana in Cuba. But the attractions of the life faded sufficiently that by 1912 Hugh Lofting was ready to do something else.
That year, he returned to America, married Flora Small, and settled in New York City to begin a writing career. HL's entry in the 1931 edition of Living Authors says that the ex-engineer's first story was about "culverts and a bridge." :-) He soon hit hi