Grattis Hugh!

ONCE upon a time, many years ago when our grandfathers were little children—there was a doctor; and his name was Dolittle—John Dolittle, M.D. "M.D." means that he was a proper doctor and knew a whole lot.

He lived in a little town called, Puddleby-on-the-Marsh. All the folks, young and old, knew him well by sight. And whenever he walked down the street in his high hat everyone would say, "There goes the Doctor!—He's a clever man." And the dogs and the children would all run up and follow behind him; and even the crows that lived in the church-tower would caw and nod their heads.

The house he lived in, on the edge of the town, was quite small; but his garden was very large and had a wide lawn and stone seats and weeping-willows hanging over. His sister, Sarah Dolittle, was housekeeper for him; but the Doctor looked after the garden himself.

He was very fond of animals and kept many kinds of pets. Besides the gold-fish in the pond at the bottom of his garden, he had rabbits in the pantry, white mice in his piano, a squirrel in the linen closet and a hedgehog in the cellar. He had a cow with a calf too, and an old lame horse-twenty-five years of age—and chickens, and pigeons, and two lambs, and many other animals. But his favorite pets were Dab-Dab the duck, Jip the dog, Gub-Gub the baby pig, Polynesia the parrot, and the owl Too-Too.

Hugh John Lofting 

14 januari 1886 – 26 september 1947

Jag tror det är dags att läsa om Doktor Dolittle. De två första böckerna finns hos Gutenberg, (och första boken finns även som talbok) — det vill säga, de böckerna han skrev först, vilket inte sammanfaller med den ordningen de kommit att få senare.

Tyvärr är de inte illustrerade, men titta in på hemsidan där finns Hughs egna illustrationer, och berättelsen om hur böckerna kom till som brev från första världskrigets skyttegravar, hem till de egna barnen.

Bokus har många av hans böcker, men jag blir lite betänksam när jag ser att det står "based on stories by Hugh Lofting", eller "retold from the stories by Hugh Lofting". Det gäller att se upp, om man vill köpa böckerna!