Doctor Dolittle’s Caravan was published by Frederick A. Stokes in 1926, and it is one of the most entertaining entries in the series — a novel that combines the animal-rights themes of Doctor Dolittle’s Circus with a backstage comedy about the creation and performance of art.
The Doctor, perpetually in need of funds, has the idea of staging an opera performed entirely by canaries — a musical entertainment in which the birds sing their own compositions (translated and arranged by the Doctor) for human audiences. The creation of this canary opera requires all of the Doctor’s linguistic and diplomatic skills: he must audition singers, compose arrangements, manage temperamental performers, and convince skeptical circus owners that bird music will attract paying audiences.
The tour — conducted from a caravan traveling through the English countryside — provides the adventure framework, while the opera itself provides the thematic content: art as communication across species boundaries, performance as a form of translation, and the comic difficulty of bringing any creative project to fruition when the performers have minds of their own.
Collecting Doctor Dolittle’s Caravan
First edition (Frederick A. Stokes, New York, 1926): Cloth binding with Lofting’s illustrations.
Market values:
- First edition in dust jacket: $100–$400
- Without jacket: $20–$60
- Later editions: $8–$15