Hugh Lofting

Graeme Davis (University of Buckingham)

Ed. by Dimitra Fimi, University of Glasgow
The Literary Encyclopedia. Volume 1.2.1.09: English Writing and Culture: Postwar and Contemporary Britain , 1945-present.
Vol. editors: Kerry Myler (Newman University), Jenni Ramone (The Nottingham Trent University)

Dates

Born 14 Jan 1886
Died 26 Sep 1947

Places

Active in United Kingdom

Activities

Primary

Children's/Young Adult writer

Resources

Hugh John Lofting (1886-1947) is remembered for the creation of the children’s fiction character Doctor Dolittle, an eccentric English doctor and vet who can talk with animals.

Lofting was born in Maidenhead (Berkshire, UK), one of six children of an Anglo-Irish Roman Catholic family. From age eight until eighteen he attended the Jesuit boarding school Mount St Mary College (Chesterfield, Derbyshire, UK) where he received the classics-based education typical of the age.

On leaving Mount St Mary College (1904), Lofting began a period of extensive travel supported by a series of short-duration jobs. He went first to USA where he started training as a civil engineer at Massachusetts Institute of Technology. However, …

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849 words

Citation: Davis, Graeme. "Hugh Lofting". The Literary Encyclopedia. First published 30 September 2019 [https://staging.litencyc.com/php/speople.php?rec=true&UID=14480, accessed 23 April 2024.]

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