1920: The Story of Doctor Dolittle by Hugh Lofting The first in the series of “Doctor Dolittle” books introduces the titular physician who learns how to talk to animals and goes to Africa to deal with a monkey epidemic. Author Hugh Lofting came up with the concept for the story when he was fighting in World War I and wanted to write about something other than the battles when sending letters home to his children, according to Biblio.