Doctor Dolittle’s Post Office (1920) is a children’s fantasy novel by Hugh Lofting. The novel is the third in a series of fifteen books featuring Doctor Dolittle, a character created by Lofting in letters written to his wife and children at home while he served in the Great War. Beloved by generations of adults and children for their imaginative nature and moral worldview, Lofting’s books have inspired numerous adaptations for theater, film, and television.
Doctor John Dolittle is an ordinary physician with an extraordinary gift. Renowned for his ability to communicate with animals, Dolittle has made a name for himself as a traveling veterinarian with a generous heart and a courageous spirit. On the West Coast of Africa, he finds himself enlisted to help rescue the captives on an illegal slave ship, earning him the respect of the people of Fantippo. There, he befriends King Koko, who encourages him to open the small kingdom’s first postal service, allowing them to communicate with distant continents using thousands of migratory birds. Told in episodic fashion, and with each episode containing wilder and more wonderful adventures than the next, Lofting’s novel features a lost island filled with prehistoric beasts, the invention of an alphabet for animals, and a tortoise who has been alive since before the Great Flood. Doctor Dolittle’s Post Office is a delightful work of fantasy for children and adults alike.
This edition of Hugh Lofting’s Doctor Dolittle’s Post Office is a classic of English children’s fiction reimagined for modern readers.
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About the author
Hugh Lofting (1886-1947) was an English writer, soldier, and civil engineer. Born in Berkshire, England, Lofting was raised in a family with Irish and English parentage. Educated at Mount St Mary’s College, Lofting matriculated at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, where he studied civil engineering between 1905 and 1906. After working for several years as a civil engineer, Lofting enlisted in the Irish Guards in order to fight in the Great War. Horrified by his experience in combat, Lofting wrote creative letters home to his wife and children that originated his legendary character Doctor Dolittle, a physician with the unique ability to speak with animals. Gravely wounded in France, Lofting returned home briefly before moving with his family to Connecticut. In 1920, he published The Story of Doctor Dolittle, the first in a series of fifteen novels and short story collections for children that have inspired numerous adaptations for theater, film, and television. In addition to these novels, Lofting published several other works for children—including picture books and poems—as well as Victory for the Slain (1942), a long antiwar poem and his only work written for adult readers.
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