Hugh Lofting

Hugh Lofting (1886-1947), Anglo-American writer and illustrator of books for children. Lofting was born in Maidenhead, England, and educated as a civil engineer at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and the Polytechnic Institute of London. Lofting settled in the United States in 1912, but served in the British army during World War I (1914-1918). His popular “Dr. Dolittle” stories, about a delightful country doctor who learns how to talk with animals, began as letters to his children during the war. The first illustrated Dr. Dolittle book was published in 1920 and was followed by nine more. The Dr. Dolittle stories were the basis for a 1967 motion-picture musical starring Rex Harrison and a 1998 film starring Eddie Murphy.