I wish that I could say I had done years of research to come up with a detailed biography of Walter Brooks - but I can't. And I won't. It's been done already! Michael Cart of Friends of Freddy has compiled a tremendous biography. At some future time I may be able to convince him to write up a short summary for this site, but until then, be sure to visit Friends of Freddy!

Walter R. brooks was born in Rome, New York, attended the University of Rochester and, after graduation, worked for the American Red Cross and the Woodrow Wilson Foundation. He became associate editor of Outlook in 1928 and subsequently was a staff writer for several magazines including the New Yorker. The short stories he began writing at this time were published in The Saturday Evening Post, Atlantic Monthly and Esquire. Brooks' short story, "Ed Takes the Pledge" was the basis for the 1950s television series Mr. Ed, but Brooks' most lasting achievement is the Freddy the Pig series, which began in 1928 with To and Again (Freddy Goes to Florida). He subsequently wrote twenty-five more hilarious books strring Freddy the Pig, called "that charming ingenious pig" by the New York Times.