Written in the Wind

Where are you, Dr. Doolittle?

The fictional good doctor, John Doolittle, is a physician who shuns humans as patients in favor of animals, with whom he has an uncanny ability to communicate.

Dr. Doolittle later becomes a naturalist, the better to put his amazing ability to work.

As envisioned by author Hugh Lofting, a series of 12 children’s books was published, beginning with the 1920 edition of ‘The Story of Dr. Doolittle.’

Dr. Doolittle was later played by British actor Rex Harrison in the 1967 movie of the same name and won 2 Academy Awards.

But is this merely a pipe dream?

The fevered dream of a man in the trenches during the war?

For Lofting was indeed in the trenches during WWI when he unleashed his imagination.

The actual news, he later commented, was too horrible or too dull.

Perhaps inventing Dr. Doolittle helped keep Lofting alive.

Dr. Doolittle was the result of his daydreaming.

As writer Edgar Allan Poe once remarked, “Those who dream by day are cognizant of many things which…