In the judgment of some commentators, Hugh Lofting's books chronicling Doctor Dolittle's adventures should be off-limits to youngsters today for two reasons. First, some of the stories, in particular The Story of Doctor Dolittle, Being the History of His Peculiar Life at Home and Astonishing Adventures in Foreign Parts (1920), The Voyages of Doctor Dolittle (1922), and Doctor Dolittle's Post Office (1923) are judged to be racist. Second, even if the racial stereotyping is eliminated, the books are still objectionable because the doctor represents the patronizing attitude of Eurocentric imperialism. Thus, according to these commentators, the Dolittle books should be removed from library shelves and relegated to the dustbin of children's literature as relics of a bygone and unlamented era. But the dustbin is not the appropriate location for the considerable creative achievement of Lofting.

Hugh Lofting was born 14 January 1886 at Maidenhead in Berkshire to John Brien and Elizabeth Agnes Lofting...