Written and illustrated by Hugh Lofting. First Canadian edition, first printing, 1923. (First published in the US in 1920.) McClelland and Stewart, Toronto.
The Story of Doctor Dolittle
Being the History of His Peculiar Life at Home and Astonishing Adventures in Foreign Parts
The First Chapter
Puddleby
"Once upon a time, many years ago - when our grandfathers were little children - there was a doctor; and his name was Dolittle - John Dolittle, M.D. "M.D." means that he was a proper doctor and knew a whole lot.
"He lived in a little town called, Puddleby-on-the-Marsh. All the folks, young and old, knew him well by sight. And whenever he walked down the street in his high hat everyone would say, "There goes the Doctor! - He's a clever man!" And the dogs and the children would all run up and follow behind him; and even the crows that lived in the church-tower would caw and nod their heads."
The first of the Doctor Dolittle stories follows the adventures of an English physician able to communicate with animals. He travels to Africa, to the monkey kingdom, to help cure an epidemic, and as thanks for his good work is given a rare pushmi-pullyu, a two-headed cross between a gazelle and a unicorn. Heading home, he's jailed by a hostile king, and saved by a prince, who gives him a ship in which to return home. When he tangles with pirates, he takes a ship loaded with treasure.
Hugh Lofting (1886 - 1947) was an English American writer who began writing stories for magazines, until his career was interrupted by World War I, during which he served as a lieutenant in the Irish Guards. He wrote letters to his children from the front, and invented the character of Doctor Dolittle to entertain them. After the war, he turned his letters into books, and published The Story of Doctor Dolittle in 1920, followed by several sequels. He won the Newbery Medal in 1923 for The Voyages of Doctor Dolittle.
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Condition: Very Good. Missing dust jacket. Black-embossed orange cloth cover boards: Moderate shelf wear; lightly bumped at corners; fraying at head, tail, and edge of spine; hinge starting at back paste down and fly leaf. Light soiling of front paste down and fly leaf. Light soiling from handling throughout; tear at gutter of page 25. Pages are otherwise undamaged and complete.
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