The Story of Doctor Dolittle

• Dates of the first 14, 15, 20, and 24 printings --to January 1932-- are provided on the copyright pages of those first editions with e-copies at HathiTrust Digital Library (HDL), reported below. The 39th printing, also from e-copy reported below, gives only its own date, August 1939.
• HathiTrust Digital Library views. HDL provides full view of multiple copies, some with the original cover. The front covers of the 15th and 20th printings, linked below, match that displayed by Wikipedia as of 2016/2018 as "first edition". As of 2018-04-07: (catalog record as "Frederick A. Stokes Company, 1920") 4 copies: -- 14th printing (Stokes, 1923-08) from Harvard U; with "Introduction to the Tenth Printing" by Hugh Walpole, p.vii-xii (evidently 1922-11) -- 15th printing (Stokes, 1923-11) from U Virginia, with original cover, 15th -- 24th printing (Stokes, 1932-01) from U Virginia -- 54th printing (J.B. Lippincott, 1948 or later) from U California; with original cover (mis-catalogued as "1920, Dell") 1 copy: -- 20th printing (Stokes, 1927-05) from U Illinois; with original cover, 20th (mis-catalogued as 'Note: "Tenth printing, Nov. 28, 1922"--T.p. verso') 1 copy: -- 39th printing (Stokes, 1939-08) from Penn State U; with "Introduction to the Tenth Printing" by Hugh Walpole, p.vii-xii (evidently 1922-11)
• Revised editions. The Story and its first sequel The Voyages of Doctor Dolittle (1922) were revised for 1988 reissue in belated "centenary" editions (Delacorte Press, hc, and Dell Yearling, tp).   "The original Dolittle texts were marred by a sprinkling of gratuitous racial epithets. ... But these blemishes were all removed in an undated 52d printing of Story, from which I read to my two sons around 1970. A reference to 'darkies' had been altered to 'people', 'work with niggers' had become 'work hard', and several other unfortunate locutions had been rendered admirably innocuous. ..."   "The centenary edition's new excisions and revisions are far more extensive. The present editors obviously hope to obliterate every emotionally tinted word. Thus, though much of ''Story'' takes place in Africa, we hear no reference to skin coloration. ..." --Selma G. Lanes NY Times 1988-08-28 "Children's Books: Doctor Dolittle, Innocent Again" (linked above)

1st ed., 1st printing LCCN links e-copies at HathiTrust Digital Library (HDL). Cover artist evident from Wikipedia image (reported 1st ed.) and HDL image (1st ed., 20th printing)

Price from advertisements by Chicago retailer McClurg's Chi. Tribune 1920-12-23 p9 (perhaps 2nd printing); by the publisher NY Times 1921-11-20 p51 (perhaps 6th printing) Late 1922 publisher advertisements of the sequel at $2.50 also note the 9th printing at $2.00.

HDL provides (as of 2016-12-27) full view of four copies but the earliest is a 14th printing, whose copyright page (1923) provides a complete printing history. That 14th printing includes "Introduction to the Tenth Printing" by Hugh Walpole, pp. vii-xii (1922-11-28 per same printing history). Library records that report a roman-numeral page-count probably pertain to that 10th printing or a later one.