The Story of Doctor Dolittle, written and illustrated by Hugh Lofting, is the first of his Doctor Dolittle books, a series of children's novels about a man who learns to talk to animals and becomes their champion around the world.

Hugh John Lofting (14 January 1886 – 26 September 1947) was a British author, trained as a civil engineer.Lofting was born in Maidenhead, Berkshire in January 1886 to English and Irish parents. He travelled widely as a civil engineer, before enlisting in the Irish Guards regiment of the British Army to serve in the First World War. Not wishing to write to his children about the brutality of the war, he wrote imaginative letters which later became the foundation of the successful Doctor Dolittle novels for children.