Theodor Seuss Geisel

First edition, first state of this subversive update to Dick and Jane, based upon the idea that kids would get more excited about reading if they enjoyed the material.

• Dr. Seuss [Theodor Seuss Geisel](American).
• New York: Random House, (1957).
• 61, [1] pages.
• Bound with original flat paper over boards (not glazed paper) and in original unclipped (200/200) dust jacket.

"[First graders] still want to laugh at something that's ridiculous." – Dr. Seuss.

Challenged to create a reader for young children using only 220 different words, 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 and the rambunctious The Cat in the Hat: kids wanted to read about the antics of the cat, just as Geisel had hoped." The first book featuring the US literary icon, this copy comes directly from the stock of Aleph-Bet Books, the firm of Seuss bibliographers Helen Younger and Marc Younger. Younger, Younger, & Hirsch, First Editions of Dr. Seuss Books: A Guide to Identification; Jones, Becoming Dr. Seuss.