Fun Facts Friday: Hugh Lofting

Hugh Lofting (14 January, 1886 – 26 September, 1947) was an English poet and author who is known for writing children literature, and specifically his character Dr. Dolittle.

Books by Hugh Lofting*

Fun facts about Hugh Lofting:

1. Hugh John Lofting was born in Maidenhead, Berkshire. His father, John Brien Lofting, was English while his mother, Elizabeth Agnes, was Irish.
2. Little is known about his childhood, only that he had attended the Mount Saint Mary Catholic boarding school for ten years.
3. Lofting was a Civil Engineer by trade, and traveled widely for his job before World War I. The author got his civil engineering degree from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Cambridge, MA. He completed his coursework at London Polytechnic.
4. During his college days, Mr. Lofting wrote plays and short stories.
5. During the Great War, Mr. Lofting enlisted in the Irish Guards regiment of the British Army.
6. Not wanting to write to his kids about the horrors he was facing, Mr. Lofting wrote them illustrated letters, which became the foundation for his character, Dr. Dolittle.
7. In 1910, Mr. Lofting was wounded very badly during the war.
8. Lofitng got married and settled in the United States in 1912, where he called home for the rest of his life.
9. The author wrote only one adult work, a long poem in seven parts about the war. Victory for the Slain, was only published in the United Kingdom in 1942.
10. The outbreak of World War II seemed to fill the author with growing pessimism about the world, in his book Doctor Dolittle and the Secret Lake, he depicts the biblical story of the flood from the animals’ point of view.

Books by Hugh Lofting*

Zohar — Man of la Book
*Ama­zon links point to an affil­i­ate account, the money is usually spent on books