A First Edition
He’s not quite Kenny Rogers and The First Edition but I’d say he’d still be able to pull a crowd on a good night. Theodor Geisel was and still is one of the best things about book-listening for sheer entertainment. As an adult I still enjoy the clever wit and marvellous illustrations and there’s a certain kookiness about his characters that’s simply endearing, enchanting even.
Theodor Seuss Geisel, better known to small children and big alike as Dr. Seuss was born in 1904 on Howard Street in Springfield, Massachusetts. His father, Theodor Robert and grandfather were brewmasters in the city. His mother, Henrietta Seuss Geisel often lulled her children to sleep by “chanting” rhymes remembered from her youth. Ted credited his mother with both his ability and desire to create the rhymes for which he became so well known.
The Influence of Springfield
The influence of Ted’s memories of Springfield can be seen throughout his work. Drawings of Horton the Elephant meandering along streams in the Jungle of Nool mirror the watercourses in Springfield’s Forest Park (735 acres on the banks of the Connecticut River is one of the largest municipal parks in the United States) from the period.
The fanciful truck driven by Sylvester McMonkey McBean in The Sneetches could well be the Knox tractor that young Ted saw on the streets of Springfield. In addition to its name, Ted’s first children’s book, ‘And To Think That I Saw It On Mulberry Street’ is filled with Springfield imagery including a look-alike of Fordis Parker (Mayor from 1930-1933) on the reviewing stand and Police Officers riding red motorcycles, the traditional color of Springfield’s famed Indian Motocycles.
Dartmouth College
Ted left Springfield as a teenager to attend Dartmouth College where he became Editor-in-Chief of the Jack-O-Lantern, Dartmouth’s humour magazine. Although his tenure as Editor ended prematurely when Ted and his friends were caught throwing a drinking party which was against the prohibition laws and school policy he continued to contribute to the magazine signing his work “Seuss.” This was the first record of the “Seuss” pseudonym that was both Ted’s middle name and his mother’s maiden name.
To please his father, he went to Oxford University in England after graduation but like so many of his kind academic studies bored him and he decided to tour Europe instead. Oxford did however provide him with the opportunity to meet a classmate, Helen Palmer who not only became his first wife but also a Children’s book author and book editor.
A Cartoonist
After returning to the United States he pursued a career as a cartoonist. The Saturday Evening Post and other publications published some of his early pieces but the bulk of Ted’s activity during his early career was devoted to creating advertising campaigns for Standard Oil which he did for more than 15 years. As World War II approached his focus shifted and he began contributing weekly political cartoons to PM magazine.
Too old for the draft but wanting to contribute to the war effort, Ted served with Frank Capra’s Signal Corps (U.S. Army) making training movies. It was here that he was introduced to the art of animation and developed a series of animated training films featuring a trainee called Private Snafu. While Ted was continuing to contribute to Life, Vanity Fair, Judge and other magazines, Viking Press offered him a contract to illustrate a collection of children’s sayings called ‘Boners’.
Although the book was not a commercial success his illustrations received great reviews providing Ted with his first ‘big break’ into children’s literature. Getting the first book that he both wrote and illustrated, ‘And to Think That I Saw It on Mulberry Street’ published however required a great degree of persistence. It was rejected 27 times before being published by Vanguard Press. A First Edition with dust cover rated VG- is valued at $USD5,000 these days, VG- USD 6,800 and VG+ rated $USD 8,400.
The Cat in the Hat
‘The Cat in the Hat’ perhaps the most defining book of Ted’s career developed as part of a unique joint venture between Houghton Mifflin (Vanguard Press) and Random House. Houghton Mifflin asked Ted to write and illustrate a Children’s Primer using only 225 “New-Reader” vocabulary words. Because he was under contract to Random House they obtained the Trade Publication Rights and Houghton Mifflin kept the School Rights. With the release of The Cat in the Hat Ted became the definitive Children’s Book Author and Illustrator.
Up until the mid-1950s there was a degree of separation between illustrated educational books and illustrated picturebooks. That all changed, dramatically and with much national fanfare, with the 1957 publication of Dr. Seuss’s The Cat In The Hat. Here was an early reader, full of 220 madly rhyming words that had made its way into Elementary School classrooms.
The Cat In The Hat is a tremendously important book. Not just an important picturebook or an important children’s book but an important book without any qualifiers! The publication of the book in 1957 forever changed the way in which children would learn to read and be educated. Reading COULD be fun!
After Ted’s first wife died he married an old friend Audrey Stone Giesel who not only influenced his later books but is now the custodian of his legacy as the President of Dr. Seuss Enterprises. At the time of his death on September 24, 1991 Ted had written and illustrated 44 children’s books including such all-time favorites as Green Eggs and Ham, Oh, the Places You’ll Go, Fox in Socks and How the Grinch Stole Christmas. His books had been translated into more than 15 languages. Over 200 million copies had found their way into homes and hearts around the world.”
Today’s blog is REALLY about Dr Seuss and The First Editions. I’m angling to inspire young would-be child collectors (parents or grandparents of them) because Children’s Book First Edition Collections are not only a wonderful hobby they could be a great future investment too.
First Editions
Almost all avid adult book collectors are really only interested in the First Edition and First Printing (first/first) of a title because it’s the first state that the book becomes available in and it will be more difficult to come by as time goes on (many First Edition printings are in smaller quantities than subsequent printings). This is especially true when there are many more reprints/editions of the book in publication/circulation.
I think it’s important for adult collectors to pass this knowledge on to aspiring younger collectors because after a very short time they pick up the commoncents of the hobby. By the time they’ve got their FIRST few books under their belt they’ll possibly be able to calculate the future value of a book if they’ve done their research. This is one bug they ought to catch!
First Editions of Dr. Seuss Books: A Guide to Identification
It should also be noted that hard back books are much more sought after and more valuable than paperback books. Paper back First Edition values are usually only a small fraction of value of their corresponding hard back versions. Back in 2002 Helen and Marc Younger and Dan Hirsch wrote ‘First Editions of Dr. Seuss Books: A Guide to Identification’ It’s both highly entertaining and full of information.
Never having read it myself I understand that it’s much more usable than most bibliographies because for once, the bibliographers not only sought out and noted all of the pertinent facts about the books in question but also paid the same kind of attention to the dust wrappers and support their written material with colour photographs of both the books and the dust wrappers.” I give you fair warning though, back in 2002 it cost $USD150 because of the small print run, it’s bound to be more by now.
Bibliography book or not, get the youngsters started. You know I’m going to give him the last word don’t you? How could I not? Quote Seuss, “I like nonsense, it wakes up the brain cells. Fantasy is a necessary ingredient in living, it’s a way of looking at life through the wrong end of a telescope. Which is what I do and that enables you to laugh at life’s realities.” Too true!
