Available Copies from Independent Booksellers
Price: US$47.00 + shipping
Condition: Good
Description: GOOD/WITH NO JACKET, 180 pp. Text clean with usual library treatments. Red cloth boards with drawing of man and monkey and black text. Binding stitched and firm.
Seller: RPL Library Store, Rochester, NY, U.S.A.
Hugh Lofting. The Story of Doctor Dolittle. Frederick A Stokes Co, 1920.
Price: US$150.00 + shipping
Condition: Good
Description: Frederick A Stokes Co, 1920. 1st Ed. hardcover. Good-. 8vo, orange cloth binding with color paste-on illustration, corners rubbed, paste-on faded, lettering worn on spine, front inner hinge reglued, ink stamps on verso of frontispiece, some smudges on interior pages, three pages have 1" tears on top edge, one page has piece of top corner missing, two illustrations missing, 180 pages" .
Seller: Stone Soup Books, Camden, ME, U.S.A.
Lofting, Hugh. The Story of Doctor Doolittle. Frederick A. Stokes, New York, 1920.
Price: US$180.00 + shipping
Condition: Very Good
Description: 33rd printing (1941). Red boards with black titling. Doolittle treating a monkey on the front cover. Sunned on the spine, some bumping and edge wear.Prev. owner in ink. Clean and pretty tight for its age.
Seller: The Book Lovers, Philo, CA, U.S.A.
Price: US$515.31 + shipping
Description: First edition, first printing, of the first book in the Doctor Dolittle series which would run to 15 titles. The US edition predates the UK edition by four years. The series has been adapted many times, including in films starring Rex Harrison or Eddie Murphy and a stage musical by Leslie Bricusse. Original pale orange cloth, spine and front cover lettered in blue, front cover with pictorial inlay, illustrated endpapers. Coloured frontispiece, 2 plates, 9 full-page illustrations, and other illustrations in text, all by the author. Extremities a little rubbed, some light soiling to spine, some splitting to front hinge and tear to front free endpaper; a very good copy.
Seller: Peter Harrington. ABA/ ILAB., London, United Kingdom
Lofting, Hugh. The Story of Doctor Dolittle. Frederick A. Stokes Company, New York, 1920.
Price: US$540.00 + shipping
Condition: Very Good
Description: New York: Frederick A. Stokes Company, 1920. Octavo. Hardcover lacking a dust jacket. First edition, first printing. Orange boards with a paste-down to the front board. Spine is cocked and there is a previous owner's bookplate on the inside of the front board. Small stain to the top edge of the text block. Book is on the lower end of very good condition.
Seller: Bad Animal, Santa Cruz, CA, U.S.A.
Price: US$1400.00 + shipping
Condition: Good
Description: 6 x 8 in. 180 pp. Orange cloth boards with blue tiles and color plate. Color endpapers. Inscribed by Lofting on the half title pg, in black ink, dated 1921, Westport. Condition of book is GOOD ; both hinges are started, with muslin exposed but holding. Covers have wear and some surface loss to the blue. Corners and spine ends worn. Small tear ar rear spine head. PO's small stamp on front pastedown, Gift inscription on 2nd blank endpaper. 14 pgs of early text have some mild spots. Chil. RGR.
Seller: Andre Strong Bookseller, Blue Hill, ME, U.S.A.
Price: US$4200.00 + shipping
Condition: Very Good
Description: First edition, first printing. Signed by Hugh Lofting on the half-title and inscribed, "Sincerely Yours: Hugh Lofting: New York: Nov. 11 '21." [x], 180 pp. Bound in publisher's orange cloth stamped in blue with pictorial onlay to front cover; lacking the scarce dust jacket. Chromolithographic frontispiece with tissue guard depicting "The Farewell Feast", 9 full page illustrations and numerous in-text illustrations, 2 tipped-in black and white halftone plates. Very Good with slight lean to binding with tender hinges. Light soiling and edge wear, faint staining to covers, ripple to front. Several hinges over-opened throughout; bottom corners bumped. Three full page illustrations and 5 in-text illustrations have been colored in with pencil, neatly. Dr. Dolittle, the traveler who can talk to animals, has become a classic figure in Anglo-American children's literature. Hugh Lofting (1886-1947) served in the Irish Guards during WWI, and the letters he wrote home to his children were the origin of the books he published some years later.
Seller: Burnside Rare Books, ABAA, Portland, OR, U.S.A.
LOFTING, Hugh. The Story of Doctor Dolittle. Frederick A. Stokes Company, New York, 1920.
Price: US$4500.00 + shipping
Condition: Very Good
Description: First edition. Octavo. Illustrated throughout by Lofting along with a color frontispiece. Orange boards with title and decoration in blue with tipped on color illustrations on the front board. Very good with two small expertly repaired tears on the first two pages, some soiling on the spine and rear board and wear at the extremities, lacking the rare dust jacket. Warmly and playfully Inscribed by Lofting: "To Mrs. R.W. Fuller Whose business methods are almost as unusual as John Dolittle's, quite as convincingly effectual - and even more agreeable to come contact with, this volume is inscribed with the Author's very sincere regards H.L. New York April 1921." Fuller was an estate agent in Connecticut where Lofting spent his summers. Given the cheeky inscriptions about her business, the two were well aquatinted. A charmingly inscribed copy of the first book of the hugely popular children's book series.
Seller: Between the Covers-Rare Books, Inc. ABAA, Gloucester City, NJ, U.S.A.
LOFTING Hugh. Story of Doctor Dolittle. , 1920.
Price: US$7800.00 + shipping
Description: "LOFTING, Hugh. The Story of Doctor Dolittle. New York: Frederick A. Stokes, 1920. Octavo, original blue-stamped orange cloth, mounted cover illustration, pictorial endpapers. Housed in a custom clamshell box. $7800.First edition of the first Doctor Dolittle title, with color frontispiece, two plates, and 30 in-text black-and-white illustrations, inscribed on the half title: "Sincerely Yours, Hugh Lofting. Jan. 15 21." The copy of Bertha Mahoney Miller, founder and editor of The Horn Book Magazine, with her posthumous bookplate.Author Hugh Lofting was "creator of the most famous vet of all time (pace James Herriot) and what a wonderfully sane loony Dr. Dolittle is. The books are absolutely irresistible and deathlessas well as being immensely stylish Very much collected, as is right and proper" (Connolly, Children's Modern First Editions, 189). Asked about the genesis of Doctor Dolittle, Lofting stated that he came up with the idea during World War I. He recalled: "'It was during the Great War and my children at home wanted letters from meand they wanted them with illustrations rather than without. There seemed to be very little of interest to write to youngsters from the Front: the news was either too horrible or too dull One thing, however, that kept forcing itself more and more on my attention was the very considerable part the animals were playing in the World War" (Firsts). After being injured in the war, Lofting used his letters to compile a book. With the help of fellow writer Cecil Roberts, whom Lofting met on a trip home to the United States, Lofting secured publication at Frederick A. Stokes in New York. Soon after, he became one of the most celebrated children's authors of all time. Without scarce original dust jacket. Peter Parley to Penrod, 138. With the posthumous bookplate of Bertha Mahoney Miller, who founded The Horn Book Magazine, the first periodical to deal only with children's literature, and Horn Book, Incorporated, the publishing company. Miller also founded the Bookshop for Boys and Girls, which was dedicated to providing disadvantaged youth with quality books. Faint child's signature.Only slight wear to bright original cloth. A scarce near-fine inscribed copy with an interesting provenance."
Seller: Bauman Rare Books, Philadelphia, PA, U.S.A.
LOFTING, Hugh. The Story of Doctor Dolittle. Frederick A. Stokes Company, New York, 1920.
Price: US$17500.00 + shipping
Condition: Fine
Description: First edition. Octavo. Illustrated throughout by Lofting, along with a color frontispiece. Orange boards with title and decorations in blue with tipped-on color illustration on the front board. About fine with hint of wear at the spine ends and small wrinkle on the cloth in a good or better dust jacket expertly repaired at the folds, light toning, and some small tears, perimeter nicks and chips on the spine. Inscribed by the author: "for Betty Lou Burns with the Author's warm regards, Hugh Lofting." Additionally, Lofting has drawn a small self-portrait at the bottom of the page that he's captioned: "Myself at the age of 20." A wonderful inscribed copy of the first book of the hugely popular children's book series with its rare dust jacket and an original illustration by the author.
Seller: Between the Covers-Rare Books, Inc. ABAA, Gloucester City, NJ, U.S.A.