Story of Doctor Dolittle, The
New York: Frederick A. Stokes Company, 1920. Item #06468
“The Making of Doctor Dolittle”
The First Edition with Six Original Hugh Lofting Drawings, Including a Preliminary Endpaper Design
LOFTING, Hugh. The Story of Doctor Dolittle. Being the history of his peculiar life at home and astonishing adventures in foreign Parts. Never before printed. New York: Frederick A. Stokes Company, 1920.
First edition of the first Doctor Dolittle book.
Octavo (8 x 5 1/4 inches; 203 x 134 mm.). [xii], 180 pp. Inserted color frontispiece with original tissue-guard, three inserted black-and-white plates, and numerous line illustrations, many full-page, all by Hugh Lofting.
Publisher’s orange cloth, front cover decoratively stamped and lettered in blue and with a duplicate of the color frontispiece laid on, spine lettered in blue, three-color pictorial endpapers. A very good to near fine copy, with only light wear to extremities and minor handling.
Together with Six Original Drawings by Hugh Lofting
An exceptional and coherent group of six original works on paper by Lofting, all directly connected with the conception, illustration, and design of The Story of Doctor Dolittle. The material documents multiple stages of the artist’s working process, from preliminary design through finished illustration and into publication.
1. Preliminary Endpaper Design (Watercolor and Ink).
A bold and highly graphic composition in black silhouette with blue wash, conceived as a continuous decorative field. Almost certainly a preliminary or rejected concept for the pictorial endpapers of the first edition—an extremely rare survival relating to the design of the book as an object.
2. Original Pen-and-Ink Illustration — The Pushmi-Pullyu.
A finished drawing depicting Doctor Dolittle, accompanied by Jip, encountering the Pushmi-Pullyu. Signed within the image. Closely related to the published version, though with slight compositional differences.
3. Original Pen-and-Ink Illustration — “Crying bitterly and waving till the ship was out of sight” (Story #25). A finished drawing tied directly to a specific passage in the text and annotated in Lofting’s hand. A poignant and expressive scene of departure.
4. Original Pen-and-Ink Illustration — Herald Tribune Adaptation.
A finished silhouette drawing, mounted and annotated for reproduction, stamped “HERALD TRIBUNE ART DEPT.” The reverse with layout calculations and paste-up remnants, documenting early newspaper dissemination.
5. Illustrated Manuscript-Style Drawing Featuring Polynesia.
A colored pencil and wash drawing with the autograph caption: “And then she says to me, she says—” A rare example of Lofting composing text and image together.
6. Preliminary Color Study — Mountain Pass Scene.
A softly rendered composition of figures moving through a mountainous landscape, likely a preparatory design for an unrealized illustration or decorative element.
First published in 1920, The Story of Doctor Dolittle introduced one of the most enduring figures in children’s literature. Written and illustrated by Hugh Lofting, the work is distinguished by the unity of text and image, both conceived by the author himself.
Original artwork for the first Dolittle book is scarce; surviving material is typically limited to isolated finished drawings. The present group is exceptional in preserving multiple phases of Lofting’s creative process, including:
Book design (endpaper concept)
Text-linked narrative drawings
Finished illustrations tied to specific passages
Preliminary compositional studies
Material prepared for publication and dissemination
Taken together, the drawings form a coherent archive documenting the transformation of Lofting’s ideas from conception to printed page. The inclusion of a probable endpaper design further elevates the group, extending its scope beyond illustration into the physical conception of the book itself.
Price: $15,000.00