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In 1926, he quit his job at the Ritz-Carlton in New York to become a full-time cartoonist.

In the 1920s, Bemelmans tried to become an artist and painter while working at hotels, but had substantial difficulties. He writes of his experiences in the Army in the book, My War With the United States. He did become an officer, and was promoted to Second Lieutenant. Army, but was not sent to Europe because of his German origins. He spent the next several years working at hotels and restaurants in the US. It is likely this was one of Bemelman's famous yarns, since in John Bemelmans Marciano's biography of his grandfather, he relates a simpler story: recognizing that Ludwig was an incorrigible boy, his uncle offered him the choice of going to America (where his father now lived), or going to reform school. Given the choice between reform school and emigration to the United States, he chose the latter. The headwaiter ignored his warning, whipped him, and Bemelmans reportedly shot and seriously wounded him in retaliation. According to Bemelmans, he finally warned the headwaiter that if he was whipped again he would retaliate with a gun. In a 1941 New York Times interview with Robert van Gelder, he related that while an apprentice, he was regularly beaten and even whipped by the headwaiter. He was apprenticed to his uncle Hans Bemelmans at a hotel in Austria.

Bemelmans had difficulty in school, as he hated the German style of discipline. In 1904, his father left his wife and Ludwig's governess, both of whom were pregnant with his children, for another woman, after which his mother took Ludwig and his brother to her native city of Regensburg, Germany. His first language was French and his second German. He grew up in Gmunden on the Traunsee in Upper Austria. Early life īemelmans was born to the Belgian painter Lambert Bemelmans and the German Frances Fischer in Meran, Austria-Hungary (now Italy). He is known best for the Madeline picture books. Ludwig Bemelmans (Ap– Octo) was an Austrian-American writer and illustrator of children's books and adult novels. Meran, South Tyrol, Austria-Hungary (now Italy)