Hugh Lofting was born on January 14, 1886, in Maidenhead, Berkshire, England. From age eight, he attended a Jesuit boarding school in Derbyshire. He later attended MIT, and completed his studies in civil engineering at London Polytechnic. His engineering and surveying work took him to Africa, the West Indies, Canada, and finally to the US. He settled in New York City in 1912, having decided to become a writer.
When he was on the front during World War I (he served in the British Guard), Lofting sent his children lots of crazyheaded stories about a veterinarian who could talk to animals. After serving in Flanders and France, Lofting was wounded and sent back home, where he began work on the Dr. Dolittle stories.
The first Dr. Dolittle book appeared in 1920 and was an instant success. Lofting wrote one Dr. Dolittle book a year until 1927, one of them winning the Newbery. He illustrated each of them himself.
By this time Lofting was sick of it, and tried to get rid of his hero by sending him to the moon, but popular demand compelled him to write Dr. Dolittle's Return in 1933. The last of the series, Dr. Dolittle and the Secret Lake, took him thirteen years to write, and ended up being published posthumously in 1948. He did write a few books about non-Dolittle characters, but they're all long out of print.
The books stayed popular long after his death. In 1967 a Dr. Dolittle movie (a musical!) heightened the already worldwide interest in his books, and several were reissued with new illustrations (not his own). We're not going to talk about the Eddie Murphy fiasco.
Hugh Lofting died on September 26, 1947, in Santa Monica. His gravestone reads "Quis Seperabit." ("Who will separate?") We're not sure why.
Books:
Dr. Dolittle
Doctor Dolittle and the Green Canary
Doctor Dolittle and the Pirates
Doctor Dolittle and the Secret Lake
Doctor Dolittle in the Moon
Dr. Dolittle's Animals
Doctor Dolittle's Birthday Book
Doctor Dolittle's Caravan
Doctor Dolittle's Circus
Doctor Dolittle's Garden
Doctor Dolittle's Post Office
Doctor Dolittle's Puddleby Adventures
Doctor Dolittle's Return
Doctor Dolittle's Zoo
The Story of Doctor Dolittle: Being the History of His Peculiar Life at Home and Astonishing Adventures in Foreign Parts Never Before Printed
The Voyages of Doctor Dolittle (1923 Newbery Award)
thanks to:
http://www.geocities.com/Area51/Station/8677/lofting.html
http://www.findagrave.com/pictures/6281.html
http://www.bartleby.com/65/lo/Lofting.html
http://www.britannica.com/bcom/eb/article/7/0,5716,49907+1,00.html
http://www.fwkc.com/encyclopedia/low/articles/l/l015001219f.html
www.amazon.com