The Story of Doctor Dolittle, Original Version, Introduction
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From: samsloan on 15 Mar 2010 19:44 The Story of Doctor Dolittle, Original Version by Hugh Lofting Foreword by Sam Sloan This is the original version of a story first published in 1920 about a medical doctor with a remarkable ability: He can talk to and understand animals. This gets him into trouble with his human patients. Because he keeps some of his animals in his office, his patients leave him. Dr. Dolittle starts treating animals, when they get sick. Dr. Dolittle has no money, because all of his patients have left him. He learns that there is a serious illness among the monkeys in Africa. The monkeys will all die and only Dr. Dolittle knows how to save him. So, Dr. Dolittle must go to Africa. Although Dr. Dolittle has no money, a man loans him a small boat so he can sail to Africa. He can only take a few of his animals with him. Upon arriving in Africa, the king there immediately puts Doctor Dolittle in prison. The king's son, Prince Bumpo, has heard the Story of Sleeping Beauty. The Prince Bumpo wants to kiss Sleeping Beauty to wake her up. However, he fears that Sleeping Beauty will reject him because he is Black. The animals tell the king's son that Dr. Dolittle has the power to change his skin from Black to White so that the Sleeping Beauty will accept him. Therefore, the king's son decides to get Dr. Dolittle out of jail so that Dr. Dolittle can change his skin from Black to White. I need to thank Mitchell R. Hadler, an attorney in Minneapolis, Minnesota, for drawing my attention to this nearly forgotten work, The Story of Doctor Dolittle, which has led to this reprinting. Please note that in some adaptions Doctor Doolittle is spelled differently than Doctor Dolittle. For obvious reasons, this story is no longer politically correct and thus is often banned from the standard library of children's books. Most modern versions make changes to the politically unacceptable story about the Prince wanting to change his skin color from Black to White. Similarly, The Story of Little Black Sambo, a story about a little boy in India, not in Africa, that every kid read a generation ago, is not so easy to find any more. Stories of Daniel Boone and Davey Crockett and other pioneers and Indian fighters that used to be Walt Disney staples have suffered a similar fate. The best known example of this is the great classic, The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn by Mark Twain that has been banned from many children's libraries because of its use of the N-word. Like it or not, these books are part of our cultural heritage and therefore Ishi Press will be reprinting some of these works in their original form to make them available to modern readers. Sam Sloan New York NY March 15, 2010 ISBN 4-87187-305-6 978-4-87187-305-5 http://search.barnesandnoble.com/booksearch/isbninquiry.asp?ISBN=4871873056 http://www.amazon.com/dp/4871873056 |