Hugh Lofting (1886-1947) was a British author. While in the trenches during World War I, rather than write home to his children about his war experiences, he instead wrote letters telling the adventures of a gentle English physician who could speak the languages of animals, Dr. John Dolittle.
Lofting wrote (and illustrated) a total of ten Doctor Dolittle books, two posthumously. The first two are included here:
The Story of Doctor Dolittle
and The Voyages of Doctor Dolittle. The latter was the second book to be awarded the prestigous Newbery Medal in 1923. The book have been in almost continual print since publication and continue to enchant both children and adults today.
This book is in the Deseret Alphabet, a phonetic alphabet for writing English developed in the mid-19th century at the University of Deseret (now the University of Utah).