The Voyages of Doctor Dolittle (Dover Children's Classics) - Softcover

Doctor Dolittle heads for the high seas in perhaps the most amazing adventure ever experienced by man or animal. Told by nine-and-a-half-year-old Tommy Stubbins, crewman and future naturalist, the voyages of Doctor Dolittle and his company lead them to Spidermonkey Island. Along with his faithful friends, Polynesia the parrot and Chee-Chee the monkey, Doctor Dolittle survives a perilous shipwreck and lands on the mysterious floating island. There he meets the wondrous Great Glass See Snail who holds the key to the greates mystery of all.

Hugh John Lofting was born on January 14, 1886 in Maidenhead, Berkshire, England, one of six children. He attended Mt. St. Mary’s College in Sheffield, England, then completed a degree in civil engineering at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Lofting fought in World War I, in the Irish Guards and was seriously wounded, ending up in Connecticut. While he was away in the war. instead of writing about the horrific scenes he was witnessing, he would write fanciful stories back home to his children. Those letters would eventually form the basis for more than a dozen “Doctor Dolittle” stories, which were written between 1920 and 1952. The second book in the series, “The Voyages of Doctor Dolittle,” won the second-ever Newbery Award. Hugh was married to Flora Small in 1912 and settled in New York and had two children, but she died in 1927. He married Katherine Harrower in 1928, but she died the same year. He was married a third time in 1935 to Josephine Fricker with whom he had a son. After that, the family moved to California. Lofting died on September 26, 1947, in Topanga, California at the age of 61. He is buried in Killingsworth, Connecticut.