# Is "The Voyages of Doctor Dolittle" by Hugh Lofting a First Edition?

> **Quick answer.** A first edition of The Voyages of Doctor Dolittle by Hugh Lofting (Frederick A. Stokes Company, 1922) is identified by: First printing August 1922. US true first (Stokes, New York).

**Checklist — a true first has these:**
- First printing August 1922
- The copyright page carries no later-printing statement; later printings add a stated line (for example a Fifth Printing is noted as August 1923)
- Bound in grey boards with a color pictorial paste-on label and blue-and-yellow pictorial endpapers showing Dolittle as king of the island
- Color frontispiece with captioned tissue guard, one color plate, and the author's black-and-white illustrations throughout
- Publisher imprint reads Frederick A. Stokes Company
- Not a book-club edition (see below)

| | |
|---|---|
| Author | Hugh Lofting |
| Publisher | Frederick A. Stokes Company |
| Year | 1922 |
| True first | US edition |
| Format | Children's / illustrated |
| Key point | First printing August 1922 |
| Book-club edition exists? | — |

## Points of issue
First printing August 1922. The copyright page carries no later-printing statement; later printings add a stated line (for example a Fifth Printing is noted as August 1923). Bound in grey boards with a color pictorial paste-on label and blue-and-yellow pictorial endpapers showing Dolittle as king of the island. Color frontispiece with captioned tissue guard, one color plate, and the author's black-and-white illustrations throughout.

## Is this the true first?
US true first (Stokes, New York). Lofting, though English, was published in the United States first; the Jonathan Cape London edition followed.

## Telling it from reprints & book-club editions
Later Stokes and successor Lippincott printings carry stated printing notices. A later second-issue dust jacket adds review blurbs and Lofting-title advertisements on the panels; the first-issue jacket lacks these. Modern reprints expurgate racial content.

## Source
New Mexico Literacy Project — Is *The Voyages of Doctor Dolittle* by Hugh Lofting a first edition? https://newmexicoliteracyproject.org/first-edition/the-voyages-of-doctor-dolittle
CC BY 4.0. Part of the Canonical First-Edition Points of Issue dataset (https://newmexicoliteracyproject.org/api/first-edition-titles.json). Last reviewed 2026-07-04.