The Story of Doctor Dolittle (Paperback) (ISBN-13: 9781509885718)

Hugh Lofting was a civil engineer who in World War I. Wanting to shield his children from the horrors of combat, he wrote to them instead about a kindly doctor who could talk to animals. After the war he settled with his family in Connecticut and it was from there that he published his Doctor Dolittle books. The Story of Doctor Dolittle was published in 1920, followed by 12 more in the series.