Dr. Seuss, The Cat in the Hat - FIRST EDITION - dust jacket & signed card
Located in Middletown, NY
First Edition, third issue of Dr. Seuss' most famous book, accompanied by a card bearing the AUTHOR's SIGNATURE and a quick SKETCH of his famous "green egg."
Seuss, Dr. (Theodor Seuss Geisel, 1904 – 1991)
The Cat in the Hat
New York: Random House, 1957.
First edition, First Printing, Third Issue. Dust jacket.
8vo, 9 x 6 1/2" (230 x 165 mm), (2) + 61 + (1) pp; pictorial end papers, verso of free end paper blank, pictorial title page, copyright page. Binding with glazed pictorial paper cover over boards and title on spine, very light signs of wear at corners and spine ends, binding stitched at 1 inch intervals; upper cover illustrated and lettered with addition of "For beginner readers"; back cover with excerpts from reviews printed in letterpress below illustration of chalkboard reading Educators hail The Cat in the Hat. Printed in red, black, salmon, dark blue and light blue on wove paper, with bold illustrations on every spread; pages a touch yellowed on edges. On the back of the last page of text is a note on the book enclosed within a large outline in blue of Cat in the Hat. The ORIGINAL DUST WRAPPER in near fine condition, with just slight wear on corners and a chip on the bottom of the spine, reproduces the book's cover; front flap bears price on upper right corner, 195/195, indicating this is the second state of the dust jacket.
Accompanied by a small drawing of a "green egg" with "Dr. Seuss" autograph in black ink with on a light green index card, 3 x 5 in. (76 x 127 mm).
[Younger & Hirsch 7; Greenaway 95]
Dr. Seuss was challenged by Houghton Mifflin's Education Division director, William Ellsworth Spaulding, to create a book for young children using the 225 essential words for beginning readers, a book they would not want to put down. Seuss used 223 of the words from the list, plus 13 others. Seuss tricked kids into enjoying learning with his destructive and charismatic house guest. Inspired in part by Krazy Kat and Felix the Cat, but with a wily mind all his own, the Cat in the Hat's humor and naughtiness are engaged in the noble cause of literacy. "Parents," notes biographer Brian Jay Jones, "were more than happy to join Dr. Seuss as fellow revolutionaries. Even if parents didn't necessarily understand the pedagogy, it was easy to see the difference between the staid DICK AND JANE...
Category
Mid-20th Century French Books
