Join Doctor Dolittle on his two grandest adventures. Collected here are The Story of Doctor Dolittle and The Voyages of Doctor Dolittle . Join the good doctor as he leans to talk with the animals, squeak and squawk with the animals. Read along as he meets the pushmi-pullyu, The Purple Bird-of-paradise, and many many others.
Hugh Lofting was a British author, trained as a civil engineer, who created the character of Doctor Dolittle — one of the classics of children's literature.
Lofting was born in Maidenhead, England, to English and Irish parents. His early education was at Mount St Mary's College in Sheffield, after which he went to the United States, completing a degree in civil engineering at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.
He traveled widely as a civil engineer before enlisting in the Irish Guards to serve in World War I. Not wishing to write to his children of the brutality of the war, he wrote imaginative letters that were the foundation of the successful Doctor Dolittle novels for children. Seriously wounded in the war, he moved with his family to Connecticut in the United States. Lofting was married three times and had three children, one of whom, his son Christopher, is the executor of his literary estate.
"For years it was a constant source of shock to me to find my writings amongst 'juveniles,'" Lofting reported. "It does not bother me any more now, but I still feel there should be a category of 'seniles' to offset the epithet."
Doctor Dolittle Hugh Lofting's doctor from Puddleby-on-the-Marsh who could speak to animals first saw light in the author's illustrated letters to children, written from the trenches during World War I when actual news, he later said, was either too horrible or too dull. The stories are set in early Victorian England, (in and around the 1840s, according to a date given in The Voyages of Doctor Dolittle). The Story of Doctor Dolittle: Being the History of His Peculiar Life at Home and Astonishing Adventures in Foreign Parts Never Before Printed (1920) began the series and won the Lewis Carroll Shelf Award in 1958.The sequel, The Voyages of Doctor Dolittle (1922), won Lofting the prestigious Newbery Medal. Eight more books followed, and after Lofting's death two more volumes, composed of short unpublished pieces, appeared. The series has been adapted for film and television many times, for stage twice, and for radio. Other Works for Children The Story of Mrs Tubbs (1923) and Tommy, Tilly, and Mrs. Tubbs (1936) are picture books aimed at a younger audience than the Doctor Dolittle books. They concern the titular old woman, her pets (with whom she can speak) and the animals who help her out of trouble.
Porridge Poetry (1924) is the only non-Dolittle work by Lofting still in print. It is a lighthearted, colorfully illustrated book of poems for children.
Noisy Nora (1929) is a cautionary tale about a girl who is a noisy eater. The book is printed as if hand-written, and the many illustrations often merge with the text.
The Twilight of Magic (1930) is aimed at older readers. It is set in an age when magic is dying and science is beginning. This work is the only one of Lofting's books to be illustrated by another person (Lois Lenski). Victory for the Slain Victory for the Slain (1942) is Lofting's only work for adults, a single long poem in seven parts about the futility of war; the refrain "In war the only victors are the slain" permeates the poem. It was published only in the United Kingdom.
My grandmother and my mother read these Doctor Dolittle books to me when I was a child. They were reading original editions that my grandmother read to my mother when my mother was a child. And I read those same editions to my daughter when she was a child. And my daughter was so inspired that she grew up to become a veterinarian! I re-read them recently at age 74, while I was in Africa. I enjoyed them again, very much, and I plan to re-read Doctor Dolittle's Post Office after I finish re-reading Homer's Odyssey.
My 7 year old son and I read this book, an old edition that was given to my husband by his first grade teacher. My son was fascinated and remembered details of what we had previously read even if it had been a few days. We will be getting more of the Dr. Dolittle books to read together. Loved reading this book together.
I adored the Dr. Dolittle books when I was a child and wanted to be a vet for many years. The stories seem a bit dated now, but I still love the whimsy and charm of Dr. Dolittle and his animal companions.
I love Dr. Doolittle, and all of his talking animals. A wonderful story of a young boy, Tommy, discovering the world. Definitely one to read out loud with kids!